Killing Monks

Lu Chengming looked at Lu Fei, who had closed his eyes, and said, "You don't need to blame yourself or feel incompetent."

"This proves that you, I, your father, and most people are all mediocre!"

"You're not a smart person, so this is the way you're suited to become the head of the Lu family."

His tone carried a hint of regret.

The hardest thing for a person is to accept their ordinariness.

I'm nothing special, nothing particularly amazing, just an ordinary person.

"Why!"

Lu Fei suddenly spoke.

Lu Chengming wasn't surprised; he simply looked at him quietly and asked, "What? Why?"

"Why!" Lu Fei exclaimed, "Why not destroy that broken knife!"

For three hundred years.

Three hundred years of resentment.

Three hundred years of fathers and sons killing each other and families being separated.

Three hundred years of torment, day and night, without peace.

Just for a knife like this?

Lu Chengming paused for a moment, then said, "We've tried."

"Enter the water."

"The entire pool of clear water, in the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, turns into thick ink. A knife that has been submerged at the bottom of the pool for ten years was retrieved intact."

"Enter the fire."

"The instant the flames licked the blade, the embers in the furnace were swallowed by the black smoke. The three-foot-high flames were extinguished completely in the blink of an eye, without even a trace of smoke."

"We consulted a master blacksmith, but he couldn't damage it in the slightest."

"Because this knife holds hatred and resentment!"

"And," he paused, "it goes berserk every time it fails to damage the knife."

"It will kill our Lu family disciples."

He paused, not continuing.

Lu Fei did not ask any further questions.

Lu Chengming's voice continued: "It's like the Lu family's three-hundred-year legacy, ingrained in our blood, impossible to spit out or dig out, passed down from generation to generation."

"All the patriarchs of the past could do was suppress their own grievances and protect the clansmen."

"Endure until the day you can't take it anymore..."

He looked at Lu Chengyu's brand-new memorial tablet: "Then, it will be taken over by the next generation."

The ancestral hall was extremely quiet.

The flame of the eternal lamp flickered gently, casting shimmering shadows on the memorial tablets lining the wall.

The spirits of the dead, who had been gone for three hundred years, silently watched the uncle and nephew in the hall.

a long time.

Lu Chengming turned his head and looked at Lu Fei.

"If you are unwilling, I can become the head of the household."

His voice was calm, as if he were talking about something ordinary.

Lu Fei looked up.

"This is because I am also a member of the Lu family," Lu Chengming said. "I am your cousin."

"Your father took the knife, and I am that 'what if'."

What if he can't handle it?

What if he goes crazy like your grandfather?

In case the black knife goes berserk and the Lu family is in danger.

I will pick it up.

This is an unspoken rule that the Lu family has followed for three hundred years.

The main branch supports the knife, while the side branches guard the clan.

When the main branch falls, the side branch rises.

He looked at Lu Fei with a calm gaze: "If you don't want to, you can leave."

"Bring your friends, bring Miss Tang, and bring her parents."

"Leave Luoqing County, leave behind the burden that the Lu family has been unable to shake off for three hundred years."

He paused for a moment, then said, "The world outside is vast and open, enough for you to roam freely with your sword."

Lu Fei did not answer immediately.

He enjoys the freedom and unrestrained feeling of wandering the world, just like his name suggests.

"fly".

He often compared himself to a bird, able to fly freely.

But he had observed birds, and birds fly in search of food.

He doesn't need to worry about making a living; he can soar higher than a bird in the world.

But now...

He raised his head.

"Third Uncle."

"Um."

"I'll take this knife!"

Lu Chengming looked at him.

There was no surprise, no relief, and not even any dissuasion.

They simply asked, "Have you thought it through?"

Lu Fei nodded.

"I can't," he paused, "be worse than him."

The person he had hated for twenty years.

The person he never truly understood.

That father who carried this knife, carried the Lu family, and carried the three-hundred-year curse!

He can't be worse than him, can he?

Lu Chengming looked at him, then nodded slightly and said, "In that case, Patriarch, let me tell you a secret about the Black Knife."

"What other secrets are there?"

Lu Chengming did not answer immediately.

He turned around and walked towards the wall that housed the ancestral tablets of all the Lu family ancestors over the past three hundred years.

The flame of the eternal lamp flickered beside him, casting a long shadow over the silent wooden plaques.

He stretched out his hand.

My fingertips touched the memorial tablet for "Lu Zhu".

That was the ancestor who sat amidst the flames of the Daming Palace three hundred years ago, forging this sword with the blood and resentment of a fallen monarch!

It is also the starting point for all the joys and sorrows, the fratricide, and the inescapable suffering of the Lu family over the past three hundred years.

"Does the patriarch know," Lu Chengming said without turning around, "the Imperial Seal of the State?"

Lu Fei was taken aback.

Of course he knew.

Any child who has read a few history books knows this.

"Qin unified the six states, and Qin Shi Huang, Ying Zheng, unified the world," Lu Chengming said.

"He ordered Prime Minister Li Si to carve the He Shi Bi jade into a seal, four inches in diameter, with five dragons intertwined on the top knob, and personally inscribed eight characters in insect and bird seal script: 'Having received the mandate from Heaven, may your life be long and prosperous.'"

He paused for a moment, then said, "I ordered the jade craftsman Sun Shou to carve it on, and named it the 'Imperial Seal of the State'."

Lu Fei remained silent.

He simply listened and watched as Lu Chengming's fingers gently caressed the memorial tablet.

"When the Qin Dynasty fell, Ziying surrendered the imperial seal to Liu Bang. The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and this seal became the national treasure of the Han Dynasty."

"When Wang Mang usurped the Han throne, Empress Dowager Xiaoyuan angrily threw the imperial seal to the ground, breaking off a corner. Wang Mang then inlaid it with gold. The seal was left with a chip."

Lu Fei's eyes widened, and he vaguely realized something.

"Later, it went through the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms period, the Jin Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Sui Dynasty, and finally the Song Dynasty."

Lu Chengming said, enunciating each word clearly, "Three hundred years ago, our ancestor Lu Zhu carried this seal and sat amidst the raging flames of the Daming Palace."

"Xi has disappeared since then."

The ancestral hall was so quiet that you could hear the faint crackling of the ever-burning wick.

Lu Fei watched Lu Chengming's retreating figure.

Looking at his finger that was still resting on the "Lu Zhu" memorial tablet.

He suddenly understood.

"...You mean," Lu Fei's voice trembled slightly, "that the secret of the Imperial Seal lies within the black blade?"

Lu Chengming turned around.

He didn't speak.

She simply watched Lu Fei quietly.

That gaze was the answer.

Lu Fei stood there, stunned.

The Imperial Seal of the State.

That was something that emperors of all dynasties, from the time of Qin Shi Huang onwards, had fought over.

That is proof of being "ordained by Heaven," a symbol of legitimacy.

It is a treasure powerful enough to cause a great upheaval in the world and drive the entire martial arts world crazy.

Lu Chengming did not answer yes or no.

He simply said, "Did you notice the guests who came to observe the ceremony when you were in the courtyard today?"

Lu Fei tried hard to recall.

All he remembered was the red silk filling the courtyard, and the murderous intent that filled the courtyard.

He only remembered his father standing there with a knife in his hand, and Tang Shuangshuang gradually growing cold in his arms.

All he remembered was holding the knife, filled with boundless hatred, wanting nothing more than to cut the person in front of him in two.

"The Sword Master Zhan of the Maritime Bureau," Lu Chengming said, "one of the Twelve Sword Masters of the 'Horizontal Sword'."

Why did he come?

Lu Fei opened his mouth, but couldn't answer.