Sir, this sword is a keepsake

The three of them came to the lake and walked towards the opposite bank along the tidal flat made of white sandstone and silt.When they reached the side of the lake, the area of ​​the tidal flat decreased sharply, and the three of them had to walk among the dense forests of aquatic plants between the banks.

"Why didn't you mention Snake Shadow earlier?" Nangong Fuyun asked suddenly as she walked behind Zhuang Li.

Zhuang Li frowned slightly, "I'm not sure about the relationship between Snake Shadow and Jinghu. If the owner of the snake wants to attack me, it's an excellent opportunity at the bottom of Jinghu. It has nothing to do with you..."

"It's hard to say whether it's an enemy or a friend. If he is really upright, why did he plant a silence gu on the wild guest monk?" Nangong Fuyun smiled faintly, "You want to wait for the wild guest monk to explain, and then look at it." How much do you want to tell us, so as not to let us know too much in one breath, right? Shen Fang, people should be wary of us."

"I……"

"Is there any pattern on the bottom of your chess piece?" Shen Fang interjected abruptly, holding up his own chess piece, showing it to the two of them, without looking back: "Just touched it a few times, and found something engraved on it. "

The two of them saw clearly that there was a beast with four legs engraved on the bottom of the chess piece. "This is the White Tiger." Nangong Fuyun took a look and said decisively, then took out her own, raised her eyebrows and said, "Mine is Suzaku."

"This...then mine is Qinglong or Xuanwu." Zhuang Li looked at his own and frowned.

At first glance, it does look like Xuanwu, after all, it has a long and slender head protruding straight out, but Zhuang Li probably knows that Xuanwu is a turtle and snake, not a snake, and the thing carved on it does not have a turtle body and four legs.

Zhuang Li, who stared at it for a few seconds, was stunned: "Isn't this the shadow of the green snake I saw at the bottom of the lake last night?"

Nangong Fuyun on the side stared at him for a long time, then said calmly, "Shall we go back and turn over all the chess pieces on the chessboard?"

"It doesn't make sense." Shen Fang said, "Even if these three things are engraved on the bottom of the chessboard, there is no guarantee that he will definitely take out the chess piece engraved with the snake shadow."

The three of them felt that they had stepped into a bigger mystery.They were very sure that when they took the chess pieces, they followed the wild guest monk's instructions and took them at random without any choice.

"The chessboard is full of dust, and the chess game has been placed in the courtyard intact for a long time. Moreover, thinking about it now, Monk Ye Ke is clearly emphasizing that you should be free when you take the chess."

"It's really interesting." Nangong Fuyun obviously also thought of this point, "And one thing I want to remind you is that I went to Wuyou Peak back then, and the road to Wuyou Peak was just a steeper mountain road, not It’s as strange as the monk said. I don’t even have the impression of this lake.”

"This may be intentional by Taoist Guixuzi." Shen Fang nodded, "Zhuang Li saw the shadow of a green snake last night, and the chess piece he took today was engraved with a snake shape. In this way, can it be reversed?" Of."

"You mean, the reason why we took these two chess pieces is also because we are related to the engraved pattern?"

"I have been in Yongxia Mountain for so many years, but I have never seen a tiger."

"White Tiger." Zhuang Li corrected him earnestly.

"Well, Baihu." Shen Fang laughed.

"Tsk," Nangong Fuyun interrupted the two of them with an untimely smile, "These are symbols rather than reality. The white tiger is the west, the red bird is the south, and your green snake is supposed to be Feng Ruo, the spirit snake. God’s stuff. Just right, the man from Spirit Snake Marsh is right in front of you, just catch up and ask if he’s okay. He intentionally left a shadow of a snake for you, presumably to make a deep first impression on you, so that you can hide it. I can't forget it in my heart, hehe... I don't know what chess piece he will take."

"Do you think this lake is a bit strange?"

Shen Fang looked at the lake at night and the morning of the day before yesterday at close range, and remembered that although the lake was dark blue and quiet, the water quality was clear, but at this time, the lake was quite muddy.If you look carefully, you can see that the turbidity is actually various dark or shallow, sinking or floating shadows... some are human figures, and some are strange shapes.

"Don't look." Zhuang Li's sudden sound broke the silence, which surprised Shen Fang and Nangong Fuyun, "These are some things that came out of my mind when I was at the bottom of the mirror lake..."

Nangong Fuyun thought deeply, "So, in fact, you exchanged some sundries with Jinghu? Use the space of Jinghu to accommodate your distracting thoughts?"

"That's the case. Hantanying pays attention to visions in the mind, while Jinghuyue pays attention to emptiness." Zhuang Li said patiently: "So, once a creature approaches and pollutes it with your own thoughts or thoughts, The whole lake was destroyed once. The master guarded the mirror lake for so many years, it is not easy to keep it so pure..." Zhuang Li paused, "And after I entered the bottom of the lake last night and blended with it, it I was polluted."

"Tsk, it seems to be a one-time practice method, and you have to walk around to try your luck. No wonder you Yanzhi Mountain is so lonely." Nangong Fuyun asked again, "Then do you know the reason for the formation of this mirror lake?"

Zhuang Li frowned when he heard that, but simply said: "Natural."

Nangong Fuyun muttered, "If you think about it, you don't know why."

Zhuang Li shrugged, too lazy to argue.

Shen Fang walked in the front, with his head straight forward, but in fact, his eyes were always squinting at the lake.Shen Fang naturally knew that he was a bit wretched like this, but he was really curious about the thoughts that Zhuang Li had washed away.And under the surface of the lake obliquely ahead, something caught his attention.

It was a figure in the shape of a human, looking quite restless, flitting left and right for a while.The shadow had no facial features and no clothes, but Shen Fang still recognized who it was based on the two extra long strips behind the figure.

is himself.

"Is it all your past thoughts washed out by the mirror lake?" Shen Fang asked in a calm tone, as if casually.

"This is probably something strong that occasionally disturbs people's mind. For example, something about my childhood..." Zhuang Li's tone gradually became more subtle.

Thinking that in Zhuang Li's thousands of thoughts, he also sinks and floats in it, Shen Fang is silent, but at this time, such thoughts have been washed away.

He tentatively said: "So, these things left at the bottom of the lake, you have completely lost and got rid of—"

Zhuang Li interrupted him with a smile, "Jinghu doesn't erase people's memories and thoughts. After all, people's joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys are endless, creating new memories and feelings every second. Jinghu's Cleansing, only existed in the night at the bottom of the lake, the heavens and the earth were turned upside down, time and space were like rivers, and I passed by like a river."

Shen breathed a sigh of relief, but somehow thought that if he could really get rid of it completely, it would be a good thing - that day when Zhuang Li advised him to wait and see what happened and not rush to Luoyang, he already felt a little panic.

Nangong Fuyun sighed from the side, "It's really amazing, but unfortunately I didn't have the chance, I missed out on such an idea, it's too late now..."

A trace of embarrassment flashed across Zhuang Li's face.Shen Fang saw it and didn't know why.

However, Nangong Fuyun attracted the two of them with another surprise, "What kind of mess is this?" Nangong Fuyun said in a disgusted tone, pointing to her feet.

Shen panicked and followed his pointer, and saw a huge shadow entrenched under the water at his feet. After careful identification, he could see that it was a tree trunk-like thing with watermelon-sized sleeves on it. sphere.

Shen breathed a sigh of relief, but also looked at Zhuang Li who was equally nervous as him with interest.

Zhuang Li murmured for a few seconds, and said in a bad mood: "It's just a bunch of candied haws, what's so interesting. I was a little bored lying under the water last night, and in my mind..."

"Is there an enlarged copper coin next to it?"

"……Yes."

On the next journey, all kinds of magnified shadows of food can be seen along the lake.Nangong Fuyun smiled like a willow, gracefully trembling, "You are really cute."

Zhuang Li raised his forehead, "Can you use other words to praise me?"

"Eating all the delicious things in the world is the same as loving all the beauties in the world. They are extremely innocent and beautiful desires. Aren't these desires cuter than murder and revenge?" Nangong Fuyun teased both of them.

Zhuang Li was speechless, and Shen Fang didn't want to bother.

The three of them continued to walk along the shore of the lake, one deep and one shallow. The cliff on the other side didn't look strange from a distance, and they didn't know what it would be like under the cliff.

"Zhuang Li, can you tell me about your parents?" Nangong Fuyun asked abruptly.

Zhuang Li, who guessed her intention, pretended to be puzzled: "Why do you care about this all of a sudden?"

"What's wrong with Miss Nangong in the past few days is comparable to that wild monk."

Nangong Fuyun raised her eyebrows, folded her hands on her chest, and smiled at Shen Fang who interjected: "Oh? Is this the legendary 'protection'?"

Zhuang Li: "Who is short? Anyway, I am not."

Shen Fang: "Yes, he is not."

Nangong Fuyun smiled, her expression was even more ambiguous, she blinked her peach blossom eyes, and said maliciously: "No wonder, you two can turn a blind eye to such a beautiful woman like me, and you are not even half distracted. Well, that’s right, before you met me, I didn’t know what you guys went through, even if it’s two men, it’s normal for them to fall in love with each other—”

"?" "..." Shen Fang didn't expect that Nangong Fuyun was also from the Nangong family after all, but she was so bold and impolite, the more she said, the more blatant it was, and the thought came to him.

"My mother is the most beautiful woman in the world."

Shen Fang's light words blocked Nangong Fuyun's mouth, she was slightly startled, her momentum was gone.

"Also," Shen Fang said with a smile: "Zhuang Li was kind of interested in you at the beginning, but unfortunately, after seeing your true temperament, I'm afraid that you will eat him alive—"

"Don't listen to his nonsense!" Zhuang Li's scalp exploded, and he threw himself on Shen Fang's back like a monkey, covering his mouth.

Shen Fang accidentally lost his balance and almost fell into the lake with Zhuang Li.Taking care of the overall situation, Zhuang Li quickly let go of him, his expression still not angry.

Nangong Fuyun bypassed the quarreling two and walked to the front, "If it weren't for the dangerous situation, in this deep mountain, being a couple of gods and immortals, discussing martial arts and talking about love all day long, would be the most beautiful thing in the world."

Zhuang Li quickly walked away from Shen Fang, teasing, "It's better to be a lonely swordsman."

Shen Fangfu went to his heart and said solemnly: "I was wrong."

"The air here is so humid, it's really tiresome~" Nangong Fuyun said softly in front.

After making jokes, the three of them finally crossed the entire lake and came to the end of the road, looking up at the screen-like mountain wall in front of them.

There are two big rocks lying under the mountain wall, one gray and one green, and they are closely attached to the mountain wall without leaving a single gap.When I walked in and took a closer look, I found that the bluestone was blue because it was covered with moss and green plants.And the direction of those densely intertwined green stems and green vines actually outlines the appearance of a chessboard between the horizontal and vertical.

On the "chessboard", there is already a chess piece placed with the bottom facing up among the greenery, on which there is clearly a nimble snake engraved.