He was born as a blacksmith, but he dominated the world

Chapter 372: The World is Like a Picture (5K)

Perhaps because she knew Jiang Lin would not stay here forever, Ma Ningyan began to restrain her temper.

Instead of getting married, she began to learn horse riding, archery, and various martial arts.

Because she remembered that although her grandfather Malu was born into a scholarly family, he was branded as an unfilial person because of this.

I guess Grandpa Hong doesn't like scholars either.

In addition, Ma Ningyan also took advantage of his father's official career to unite with Yu'er's adopted sons and daughters, doing business while working hard to expand their influence.

As the years passed, the two families became more and more famous.

One family was rising rapidly in officialdom, while the other was going further and further in business.

The only thing that has not changed is that they come to the blacksmith shop at least three times a year to pay their respects to Jiang Lin.

In this way, in the 92nd year that Jiang Lin came here, even Malu's eldest son and second son had died of old age.

The highest-ranking official in the Ma family now is the youngest son, Ma Chengzhun, who holds the third rank.

But the one with the most say in the family is Ma Ningyan.

It was Ma Ningyan who had been planning and working behind the scenes over the years, which gave Ma Chengzhun the hope of competing for a second-rank official position.

Yu'er's adopted sons and daughters also contributed a lot.

Of course, their efforts were not in vain.

The two families had a very good relationship. When the Ma family was promoted, they also benefited from it.

On this day, Ma Ningyan accompanied Jiang Lin to pay tribute to the blacksmith Ma and his wife, and then went to the cemetery to pay tribute to Yu'er.

There are special people responsible for cleaning here, and the ground is level everywhere, and repairs and cleaning are carried out every year.

Decades have passed, and not only has it not been damaged in the slightest, it has become even more refined.

Don't look at the tall tombstone, just think of it as a garden.

Jiang Lin stood in front of the tomb, watching Ma Ningyan carefully wiping the tombstone. Further inside, Yu'er's adopted son and daughter were adding soil and pulling weeds.

【Tomb of Xie Hongyu】

Below is the year of birth and date of death.

Ma Ningyan finished wiping the tombstone, walked back and asked, "Grandpa Hong, do you think this is okay?"

Ma Ningyan, now 43 years old, looks much more mature.

Because she has never been married, her hair is still loose and she doesn't wear it in a bun like a woman.

Compared to many years ago, Ma Ningyan now exudes a heroic aura.

She has a great talent for martial arts and learns things very quickly. Three or five ordinary strong men cannot get close to her.

Even Yu'er's adopted sons and daughters learned a few tricks from her.

"Very good." Jiang Lin nodded slightly and stared at the tomb in front of him. He looked a little absent-minded, and no one knew what he was thinking.

After a long time, Yuer's adopted son and daughter cleaned up the surroundings and came over to follow him in burning paper and worshipping.

After showing his filial piety, Jiang Lin said, "Come with me for a walk on the street."

"Yeah." Ma Ningyan walked over and took his arm as skillfully as ever, not caring at all about other people's eyes.

In her eyes, Jiang Lin is her own relative, just like her grandfather.

Jiang Lin walked and stopped along the way as he came to the street.

Over the past few decades, this place has changed so much that many houses have been rebuilt and the people have been replaced.

The old man who sold candied haws has been confirmed to have passed away many years ago and will never be seen again.

The group of children who used to surround the old man and ask for candied haws are now middle-aged.

Jiang Lin walked all the way and finally stopped in front of the steamed bun shop.

The bun shop was closed today, and a young man was hanging a white cloth on the door.

Jiang Lin walked over and asked, "Where's your father?"

The young man turned around and saw Jiang Lin, and quickly jumped down from the stool. He looked gloomy and said in a sad tone: "Master Hong, my father passed away yesterday."

Jiang Lin was not surprised. The owner of the bun shop had been ill for a long time and he was already dying when he arrived.

Jiang Lin, who had anticipated this outcome, nodded slightly and said, "My condolences."

"Thank you, Master Hong, for supporting our business over the years. I wonder if you have time to see my father off during his funeral?" asked the young man.

Jiang Lin did not comment and said, "We'll see when the time comes."

The young man didn't ask too many questions. Jiang Lin was a legendary figure here. He lived the longest and had never changed.

Many people said that he had achieved immortality.

Jiang Lin left the bun shop and continued walking forward.

Ma Ningyan was a little surprised. In the past, Jiang Lin would only go to the bun shop and not leave, but today seemed a little abnormal.

She felt a little uneasy and couldn't help but recall what Jiang Lin had said many years ago about possibly leaving.

Could it be... now?

Thinking of this possibility, Ma Ningyan held Jiang Lin's arm a little tighter, as if this could keep him.

Jiang Lin could feel the change in her strength, but he didn't care.

After walking forward for a long time, they reached the end of the street.

This was an area that Jiang Lin had not set foot in for decades. The restaurant in front of him was brand new and bright.

The sounds of the waiters serving, the customers shouting, and the shopkeeper greetings came one after another.

The place was bustling with people, cups clinking and noise making.

Jiang Lin looked at the shopkeeper behind the counter and asked, "Have you seen him?"

"No." Ma Ningyan shook her head first.

The three people behind him also shook their heads.

"Why haven't you seen it?" Jiang Lin asked again.

Several people were stunned by the question and didn't know how to answer.

If you haven't seen it, then you haven't seen it. There's no reason.

"I've seen him." Jiang Lin's eyes gradually brightened: "Decades ago, he stood there, writing in one hand and greeting regular customers with the other."

Jiang Lin pointed at the waiter running around in the store and said, "He just fell down, the food was scattered all over the floor, and he was scolded a few times."

Ma Ningyan and the others looked into the store and saw that the waiter was wet all over, and indeed looked like he had been spilled with wine.

Jiang Lin pointed at a couple sitting by the window and said, "They just had an argument and haven't reconciled yet, so they just stared at each other in silence."

"The wild cat at the door lingered for a long time and was chased away by my child several times."

"The thirteenth tile on the first row of the roof, counting from east to west, is loose."

"The sound of poetry recitation in the elegant room on the second floor is still very loud."

Ma Ningyan and the three elderly men and women looked at each other, all of them somewhat confused.

Ma Ningyan couldn't help but ask, "Grandpa Hong, what are you talking about?"

Jiang Lin turned his head to look at her, and Ma Ningyan saw those bright eyes, without the previous confusion.

His eyes made Ma Ningyan feel a little strange, and she couldn't help but let go of Jiang Lin's hand.

"Everything I saw decades ago has not changed, because I have never been here again, and they have no breath connected to me."

"The old man who sold the hemp candied haws passed away, the vendor at the steamed bun shop also passed away, and many people left. Things have changed, but I have been with them all these years."

Jiang Lin's voice was clear, and his eyes were getting brighter and brighter: "Everything I've seen has changed. Everything I haven't seen has not changed."

“I’ve been wondering why.”

"Why does my existence affect all this?"

Ma Ningyan seemed a little scared and said, "Grandpa Hong, what are you talking about?"

Jiang Lin smiled at her, raised his hand and reached towards the distance.

The scenery he captured became distorted and extremely unnatural at this moment.

Jiang Lin felt a huge resistance, as if he was being pressed down by a mountain weighing tens of millions of pounds, but his expression did not change at all, and his voice remained steady.

"This is neither the mortal world nor the human world."

"I am not me."

Jiang Lin looked at Ma Ningyan: "You are not you either."

He looked at Yu'er's adopted sons and daughters again: "They are not them either."

“This is a painting in my mind, depicting everything in the world.”

“I am the painter and also the pen. The places I am in will change. The places I have not been to are not stained by any ink, so they will not change.”

Ma Ningyan was stunned and said, "Grandpa Hong, what's wrong with you? What do you mean you are not you, we are not us? How can we be paintings?"

Jiang Lin shook his head slightly: "The paintings I'm talking about are not the paintings you know, but the vicissitudes of life that are outlined with time as the pen and the world as the ink. It's not until now that I understand who I am and what I'm doing here."

Ma Ningyan subconsciously took a step back and asked in astonishment, "Aren't you Grandpa Hong..."

"I am and I am not."

A faint light gradually appeared in Jiang Lin's eyes, which was golden and red.

His aura began to rise continuously, like bamboo shoots after rain, pushing away the huge rock pressing on his body, facing the spring breeze, rain and dew, and began to rush madly to higher places.

"I am Jiang Lin, and I am here to witness the thousands of changes in this world."

"I am also Hong Chen, and I have personally traveled in this world for a hundred years."

Wisps of aura gushed out from Ma Ningyan, from Yu'er's adopted son and daughter, from the people in the restaurant, from the Ma family's house, from the steamed bun shop, and from the countless people and things related to Jiang Lin in this world. When these auras accumulated enough, Jiang Lin felt an unusual change.

It is a power that is more refined, more mysterious, and more incredible than Xuan Qi.

His eyes swept across Ma Ningyan and the others, and his body seemed light at this moment.

Somewhere in the dark, he sensed a hint of mystery.

"It turns out that what I'm looking for is the Tao."

Jiang Lin's body was floating in the air. Both Ma Ningyan and Yu'er's adopted son and daughter had faces filled with astonishment and panic.

Ma Ningyan seemed to realize something. She raised her hand and wanted to grab Jiang Lin's body.

The panicked shouts were clear and audible.

"Grandpa Hong, I'm not Hua, I'm Ningyan! Don't leave, don't leave!"

Jiang Lin lowered his head. He had remembered everything and knew his origins.

Although I already understand in my heart that this world is not real, but it is the mortal world I accidentally stepped into because of some realization in my heart.

But looking at Ma Ningyan with tears in her eyes, he couldn't help but think of the blacksmith Ma and his wife, Ma Lu, and Yu'er.

It took decades of life for the steamed bun shop owner and the old man selling candied haws to prove that the world is like a painting.

But at this moment, Jiang Lin felt a little dazed.

Is it really just a painting?

Ma Ningyan cried loudly and stretched out her hands towards Jiang Lin's rising figure.

On the day Malu left, she cried for a long time, knowing that her grandfather would never come back.

But then she was happy for a long time because she knew that Grandpa Hong Chen would never die.

But now, she knows she was wrong.

Grandpa Hong may not die, but he will leave here and never come back.

Over the years, Ma Ningyan has been working hard on various things, hoping to use these things to divert her attention.

She didn't want to think about what would happen if Grandpa Hong passed away one day.

"Grandpa Hong, I am real...I am real..."

The crying sounded like an abandoned child, so mournful and full of fear.

Jiang Lin lowered his head and looked at the woman sitting on the ground. It seemed as if he had returned to decades ago.

"Are you Grandpa Hongchen?"

The little girl who had stood in front of the blacksmith shop and looked at him timidly was now crying and unable to stand up.

"This is not true..."

Jiang Lin closed his eyes and clenched his fists slightly.

All of this was just a false picture that he had realized!
But the crying sounds in my ears continued.

When Blacksmith Ma left, he didn't say a word and was extremely silent.

When Master's Wife Lu Yinghong left, she said a lot; she missed the past.

When Malu left, he said a lot. He regretted that studying made him bear the stigma of being unfilial.

When Yu'er left...

Even now, Jiang Lin still remembers that sentence.

"Brother Chen, can you teach me how to live forever?"

Yu'er felt no fear, no regret, and no pain.

But the regret she left behind is the most unforgettable.

But what Ma Ningyan left for Jiang Lin was different from these.

She was like a child, standing on the street crying helplessly, looking at the figure who had abandoned her and was getting farther and farther away.

"grandfather……"

"grandfather……"

The calls again and again made Jiang Lin's eyelids tremble.

Until a shrill cry was heard: "Grandpa! I want Grandpa!"

Ma Ningyan was like this on the day Malu left.

Jiang Lin suddenly opened his eyes, looked down at the woman who was spitting blood and falling on her back, and the veins on his forehead suddenly bulged.

Damn!

It is clearly a painting of the human world, why can’t I let it go!
Knowing that all this is fake, why are you still so concerned!

Ma Ningyan, with blood constantly flowing from the corners of her mouth, had a pale face. The aura on her body was rapidly fading and was almost disappearing.

Jiang Lin could clearly sense that her heart pulse had been cut off.

At this moment, he really couldn't explain or understand. If he was really the person in the painting, how could he be so sad.

"This girl is really..."

After all, Jiang Lin is still the loyal and righteous Jiang Lin, and he cannot sit idly by and watch the person who has been with him for decades die like this.

He sighed heavily, that was all.

Even if it's a painting, it should have a happy ending.

The figure in the sky paused, and Jiang Lin turned around and was about to fall to the ground. If he wanted to leave, he had to at least save her. Otherwise, he would be uneasy all day long thinking about this matter.

At this moment, Jiang Lin suddenly felt a huge sense of oppression coming from behind him.

He turned his head suddenly, and the scene he saw made his pupils shrink violently.

In the far distance in the sky, a silhouette larger than a mountain was seen falling straight towards this side.

The figure seemed to come from ancient times, with a destructive aura that covered half of the sky.

It is so huge and unbelievable that its body even produces an irresistible gravitational force that makes it impossible to escape.

Seeing the huge figure approaching in an instant, Jiang Lin waved his hand and slapped the ground without thinking.

This palm, carrying his understanding of the way of the human world, turned into a strange power that had never existed in this world and was poured into Ma Ningyan's body.

Yu'er's three adopted sons and daughters, who were supporting Ma Ningyan, were also affected.

Their bodies stiffened, and they felt this strange power surging in their bodies.

They didn't have time to react before the remaining force sent them flying.

After Jiang Lin caught a glimpse of a few people leaving from the corner of his eye, he turned back and saw that figure had already bumped into him.

Jiang Lin, who had no time to dodge, had a bright light flashing in his eyes.

He was not afraid, nor did he retreat. Instead, he gathered all the strength he had gained, concentrated it in his fist, and punched hard at the huge body that blocked out the sky and the sun.

The incomparable power made the whole world tremble, as if it could not bear such great power.

The moment the fist collided with the huge figure, a deafening roar broke out, the space seemed to be torn apart, and the air around it surged wildly, forming whirlpools visible to the naked eye.

The light was so bright that it was impossible to look directly at it. Even the sky and earth in the distance were blurred by this force.

But this punch had no effect on that body.

It was like an egg hitting a hard block of iron. In just a moment, Jiang Lin let out a muffled groan.

This earth-shattering punch actually caused him to suffer internal injuries instantly.

But in the next moment, he felt something in front of him suddenly lighten.

No, it wasn't easy, it was just that he had already passed through the figure, and the remaining strength hit the void in front of him.

In an instant, the whole world shattered like a mirror.

Jiang Lin only had time to take a quick glance and saw that the unimaginably huge body had fallen heavily to the ground, raising countless dust.

The force of the impact alone was countless times more terrifying than his punch.

Ma Ningyan and the others...

Jiang Lin's mind had just begun to stir when the scene in front of him suddenly changed. He saw the owner of Zuowang Tower standing in front of him with a look of horror on his face, and several gangsters sitting on the ground.

The look they gave Jiang Lin was full of fear, as if they had seen something terrible.

"Sir..." the shopkeeper shuddered.

Jiang Lin didn't pay attention to them and immediately turned his head to look behind him.

The almost unreal world was rapidly fading, but unlike before, the figure that had stirred up the endless dust was still there.

Jiang Lin suddenly stretched out his hand and grabbed forward, but the human world faded away very quickly, and was easily penetrated like a popped bubble.

In the blink of an eye, everything disappeared, only Jiang Lin's chaotic aura remained.

"Ning Yan!"

Jiang Lin's eyes widened and he clenched his fists, even though he always believed that it was a picture of the world and everything was not real.

But can decades of experience really be concluded with the words of a painting?

Others might be able to do it, but Jiang Lin can't.

Especially the last scene he saw made Jiang Lin feel what it means to be truly unstoppable!

His chest heaved violently, showing his extreme inner turmoil, and he couldn't help muttering to himself.

"The one that fell..."

"what exactly is it?"

(End of this chapter)