Yu Wu

The next day was the morning rest, and Mo Xi took Gu Mang to become a slave.

In most countries, slaves are lowly, unable to cultivate and read, and are also called "untouchables".

Although there is no essential difference between Chonghua and them, at least their attitude is slightly gentler.

Since the first emperor inherited the Datong, Chonghua abolished the harsh term "untouchables", and allowed slaves with acceptable aptitude to enter the cultivation school to cultivate spiritual cores.The first emperor even appointed slave-born people as generals, allowing them to form an army and serve the state.

These things once caused an uproar in the Chonghua Kingdom, and the old nobles remonstrated one after another, saying that this move has lessons learned from the past, and the ambition of wolves is unpredictable. If the emperor gives slaves power, they will desire more.

The implication is that if the slaves are allowed to practice and establish their careers, after a long time, there is no guarantee that they will not covet the position and violently overthrow the government-who wants to be trampled underfoot?

But the old gentleman refused to listen. He felt that wars were raging in Kyushu, and wars between countries were becoming increasingly fierce. Anyone who is capable can use it. Otherwise, internal affairs will be stable, but external troubles will be unavoidable.

It was under such circumstances that Gu Mang and his Wang Bajun emerged.

However, once the monarch and the courtiers came to the throne, after the new monarch succeeded to the throne, he felt that "internal affairs" were more important than "external worries", so he took Gu Mang as a knife, cut power and demoted him, in order to appease the hearts of the old nobles.

That's how it is today.

"We're here." The carriage stopped outside a small shop next to the Cultivation Academy, and Mo Xi went forward and knocked on the half-hidden door.

This is an old store with a cramped entrance and a long period of disrepair. Outside the store, there is only a wooden board lazily thrown away. On the board, there are five big characters "Compassionate Smelting Shop", and the character "Smelting" has lost the two dots next to it. red paint.

Gu Mang asked, "Where is this?"

Mo Xi didn't answer, but just pushed open the rickety old wooden door, and led Gu Mang inside.

The shop was poorly lit, and the outside sunlight could not come in for a long time, and the room was filled with a strong smell of rotting wood.In order to save money, the partial shopkeeper refused to light the lamp, and only relied on the light of the smelting furnace.

A hunchbacked old man sat in front of the smelting furnace, and slowly pumped air into the furnace. With one blow, red stars scattered purple smoke, and glaring orange-red molten iron flowed out of the groove, like lava flowing out of the ground.

Mo Xi said, "Uncle Song."

The old smelter was engrossed in creation, and he was still a little deaf, so he didn't hear the movement behind him at all.

Mo Xi raised his voice and called again: "Old man."

Only then did the old man come to his senses, he turned his head slowly, and the firelight reflected on his old, ravine face, making him look like an overexposed orange, shriveled and yellow.

He looked at Mo Xi, was stunned for a moment, then looked at Gu Mang, and then showed a dazed expression, and hurriedly stood up tremblingly saluting, muttering: "Oh, oh...it's Gu Shuai..."

Gu Mang stood in the same place without knowing why, seeing the old man bowing to him, so he also bowed to the old man like a gourd.

Mo Xi was silent for a while and said, "He is no longer Gu Shuai."

The confused Old Uncle Song said in confusion, "Really? Then what is he now?"

"Prisoner."

Uncle Song was very surprised, and stared at Gu Mang for a while.

"Prisoner...prisoner..."

He walked over slowly, took Gu Mang's hand with his wrinkled hand, and after a moment of stupefaction, he suddenly smiled again and began to talk nonsense, "Oh, little Gu, you're lucky, look Look, the old man didn't lie to you, did he? There are still many good people in the world, from now on, you will no longer be a slave of Wangshu Mansion."

As he said, he patted the back of Gu Mang's hand happily: "Come on, the old man will melt off the slave ring around your neck."

Hearing the old man's befuddled words, Mo Xi's eyes flashed with deep pain.

He closed his eyes, his Adam's apple twitched slightly, and was about to say something, when he heard a muffled sound upstairs, and the wooden ladder creaked.A gentle voice sounded:

"Mr. Xihe, why are you here?"

Mo Xi turned his head and saw a man in a plain white robe and leaning on wooden crutches struggling up and down the escalator.

It was Jiang Yexue.

Jiang Yexue is the owner of this smelting shop, and old man Song used to be a smelting master in Yuefu, and he can be regarded as Jiang Yexue's first mentor.After Jiang Yexue was expelled from the Yue family, the only person who was willing to accompany him was this old man from the Yue family.

Mo Xi said, "I'll bring him here to become a slave."

Jiang Yexue was slightly startled: "Who?"

Mo Xi turned his tall and straight body sideways, revealing Gu Mang who was looking eastward and westward behind him.

Jiang Yexue murmured, "...it's Gu Shuai..."

The old man Song next to him was unwilling to be lonely, stretched out his hand like a dead tree branch to pat his apprentice's back, and said cheerfully: "Today is really a good day, Ye Xue, look, our little Gu is promising, he is a serious Hua is the first person to be enslaved? It's not easy."

"..." Jiang Yexue sighed, "Master, what you said happened many years ago."

Old man Song asked suspiciously, "Did I remember wrong again?"

"Yes. At that time, I could still run and walk." Jiang Yexue lowered her eyelashes and smiled at the old man, "Master, you are tired, go and rest."

Jiang Yexue calmed down the old man, and returned to the two of them: "I'm sorry, Mr. Xihe, Master has always talked upside down these years, and I hope you don't blame him."

Mo Xi said, "No problem."

Gu Mang blinked his eyes, followed suit and said, "It's okay."

Mo Xi glanced at him. The way he looked at Gu Mang today was not fierce, but rather weird, as if he was shrouded in the shadow of the past.

Jiang Yexue took a panoramic view of all this, sighed lowly, and said, "If you want to be enslaved, please invite the two of you to come upstairs with me."

Mo Xi asked: "But your legs..."

"With crutches." Jiang Yexue smiled, "It's fine, I can walk."

When they went upstairs, the second floor of the smelting shop was much brighter, with all kinds of weapons and armor condensed from spiritual power hanging on the shelves.

In this world, most of the weapons used by monks are forged by spirit bodies. They will go to various smelting shops to choose the desired weapons, and let the smelters fuse the forged magical weapons with their own spiritual cores. When you need to recite the mantra in your heart, the weapon will come out in response to the call.

Although these weapons are not as powerful as Shenwu, their casting principles are similar, and their power is astonishing.

Moreover, in order to forge powerful weapons, the smelters will go out to hunt various spirits - the beak of the fire phoenix, the claws of the green flood dragon, the teeth of the white elephant that swallows the sky... The more ferocious the spirit beast, the fuller it is. With powerful spiritual power, the momentum of the refined weapon becomes even more shocking.

Some smelters even use resentful spirit weapons, and the weapons they make can summon resentful souls to help them fight. The most typical one is the water ghost talisman handed down from Mr. Wang Shu's family. Violent soaring.There is also Li Qingqian, the sword spirit, which is also true.

But Jiang Yexue's smelting shop was different, the old man was so dazed and confused that he would die.As for himself, he is also a very kind person with a soft heart, and he is reluctant to trample an ant to death.Asking him to fight phoenixes and slay dragons is simply a dream come true.

"The spiritual power I use to refine the weapon comes from some flowers and plants."

He turned his head and saw Mo Xi looking at his window sill, feeling a little embarrassed.What he was drying on the window sill were all limp spirit bodies, which were useless at first sight.

"The kids from the Cultivation Academy... will come to me to buy some weapons, so they won't hurt anyone."

Mo Xi said, "There's nothing wrong with that."

Jiang Yexue smiled.

Although his art of refining weapons came from the Yue family, his way of doing things is completely different from the Yue family.Yue Juntian's weapon refining blindly pursues dominance, and Murong Chuyi doesn't care whether he is cruel or not, so when he was young, Jiang Yexue often had conflicts and disputes with his father because of different ideas.

It is very difficult to change a person's thoughts unless they experience unbearable pain.

In fact, even without the incident of his dead wife, Mo Xi felt that Jiang Yexue would definitely part ways with the Yue family in the end.

Jiang Yexue took down an iron box from the shelf with a pile of refining materials, brushed off the dust on it, and came in front of the two.

Mo Xi had once accompanied Gu Mang to take off the lock ring, so he was very familiar with this iron box.Because of this, Jiang Yexue glanced at him with some hesitation, and said, "Mr. Xihe, I'm about to cast a spell, do you want to avoid it?"

Mo Xi's face was very calm, he looked at the dark box without any superfluous expression: "No need."

"Okay, then I'll start."

He put the box on the ground, and then said to Gu Mang: "Gu..." The words came to his lips, but he didn't know how to address him, so he sighed, "Please sit down."

"Close your eyes."

"Put your hand on the box."

Gu Mang complied with the first two indifferently, but he refused to do the last one.He opened his eyes again, stared at the box for a while, and murmured: "...I don't like this thing."

After speaking, he looked up at Mo Xi: "I'm leaving."

"sit down."

"gone."

Mo Xi said: "If you still want to stay in Xihe Mansion, you must do as he said."

Gu Mang had no choice but to curl his lips, looking aggrieved and alert, but after hesitating for a while, he still put his hand on the box.

Mo Xi said to Jiang Yexue, "Casting a spell."

Jiang Yexue nodded.The operation like Murong Lian's back then was actually wrong. The slave lock ring itself has a lot of magic power. If it is just worn casually, it may cause the wearer to run away with spiritual flow, or die unexpectedly.

However, none of the teenagers at that time understood this truth.

The craftsman Jiang Yexue lowered his eyes and recited the incantation silently.Soon, a dark spiritual flow flowed out from the hole in the iron box. The spiritual flow climbed up Gu Mang's arm like a snake, from the forearm, to the shoulder, to the collarbone... and wrapped around his neck. At the end, it finally condensed into a black black iron ring, and the aftertaste of smoke and mist circled around, and turned into a small card hanging on the iron ring.

"All right."

Gu Mang opened his eyes, touched his neck, and didn't speak after the first touch.But soon he touched it a second time, this time he actually spoke, he turned his head and muttered thoughtfully: "...the necklace..."

Mo Xi leaned against the window with his long legs and narrow waist. Hearing what he said, he was stunned: "What?"

Gu Mang asked in surprise, "Did you give me a necklace?"

"..."

Mo Xi didn't answer, but Jiang Yexue couldn't bear it, and nodded to him.

Gu Mang was confirmed, and there was a tiny light in his blue eyes. He repeatedly touched his slave's neck ring, and his face, which looked as gentle and kind as before, showed some cautious joy.

Then he turned his head and said to Mo Xi, "Thank you."

There was a moist wind blowing in from outside the window, blowing the bits and pieces from Mo Xi's temples. He stood not far away with his arms folded, looking at Gu Mang's silhouette without saying a word.

Today's Gu Mang is like the fragments of Gu Shuai in the past. He wanted to see the shadow of his old friend from him, but in the end he only ended up with the result that his eyes were pierced red by the fragments.

Almost when no one was paying attention, he closed his eyes in embarrassment, his throat throbbing——

Many years ago, it was also on the second floor of the Mercy Smelting Shop, and also in this room, the young Gu Mang was also touching a slave neck ring with a bright smile on his face.

That neck ring was taken off by Uncle Song at that time.

"It's over, Senior Brother Gu, you will no longer be Murong Lian's person." At that time, Mo Xi looked at Gu Mang's face and said solemnly, "You are free."

That time, the neck ring fell.Gu Mang was laughing.

Time flies, time has changed.

This time, the collar was fastened, and Gu Mang was still smiling, nothing seemed to have changed much.

But Mo Xi felt that his throat was as astringent as a bitter olive, and he couldn't swallow it no matter how hard he swallowed.

This bitterness seemed to haunt him for the rest of his life.

"Wait." Jiang Yexue was talking to Gu Mang, "It's not over yet. I still need to write a few words on this... necklace."

"What word?"

"Your name, according to your body number." He flipped through the record of slave registration in the Chonghua Kingdom, and found out how many slaves in this country Gu Mang was in the slave ring, "Yes, seven hundred and nine."

Gu Mang didn't know what this meant, so he just listened to him, seeming to understand.

Jiang Yexue used spiritual power to engrave it on him, and after engraving this side, he turned it to the back.He raised his head again, but this time instead of looking at Gu Mang, he looked at Mo Xi, who was standing by the window against the light, with an indistinguishable expression.

"Mr. Xihe, look at this side..."

Mo Xi said: "There is no need to engrave it."

"But I'm afraid it's against the rules. Even if it's not a personal name, it should be the family name, or the name of the mansion."

"No need." Mo Xi paused, then turned his face away.

Jiang Yexue sighed, "But..."

"Do you want to engrave the other side?" Gu Mang suddenly asked, "What do you want to engrave?"

"Yes." Jiang Yexue said to him, "I want to engrave your master's name."

Gu Mang frowned and thought for a while, and when Mo Xi impatiently prepared to come over and tell him to go, he suddenly said, "I know who to engrave."

He turned his head to look at Mo Xi: "Carve you."

Mo Xi: "...What nonsense?"

"You are the master, many people call you that."

Mo Xi closed his eyes and frowned, "You're too wordy, hurry up and follow me."

"Can't you engrave your name?"

Mo Xi said sternly, "No."

He didn't know why, but he just thought about the collar engraved with his name on Gu Mang's neck for a moment, and he felt a rush of restless blood.He shook his head irritably, as if he wanted to shake off a mosquito that disturbed his cleanliness, then grabbed Gu Mang by the back of his collar, lifted him up, and said to Jiang Yexue:

"Elder Qingxu, farewell."

Jiang Yexue said, "I'll see you off."

"You have trouble with your legs and feet, no need."

Jiang Yexue smiled and said, "It's nothing, I'm used to it. And I happen to be going to West Street to buy some pine oil. Wait for me, I'll get some money..."

Mo Xi said, "What about your wheelchair? I'll push it for you."

"It's not good to sit all the time, just have a crutch." Jiang Yexue put some broken coins into Qiankun's bag, "Let's go."

The three of them arrived at the grocery store at the slant of West Street. Jiang Yexue asked the shopkeeper to fill him with two pots of pine oil, and was waiting for the boss to come back from filling the pots. : "The shopkeeper, the shopkeeper! Did all the things I ordered last time arrive?"

Then there was another cool and dignified voice: "Yue Chenqing, don't be jumping up and down."

They turned their heads and saw that the person who came in with the wind and snow was Yue Chenqing, and the one who stepped in was Murong Chuyi in a white robe.

The two groups of people suddenly met each other, both of them were surprised and stunned.

Especially Murong Chuyi, his sharp phoenix eyes fell on Jiang Yexue at once, and then he narrowed his eyes slightly.

Murong Chuyi: "..."

Jiang Yexue: "..."

The atmosphere was quite weird for a while.

One must know that Murong Chuyi's elder sister is Yue Juntian's wife, and Jiang Yexue's mother is Yue Juntian's concubine. Both women have passed away now, but the two juniors have not told the past. forget.

Jiang Yexue whispered, "Chu Yi..."

Without saying a word, Murong Chuyi suddenly turned around and left with a flick of his sleeves.

Yue Chenqing hurriedly persuaded: "Fourth Uncle..."

But Murong Chuyi had already lifted the curtain and went out, and a frosty voice came from outside, with thin anger: "Yue Chenqing, every time I go out with you, nothing good happens."

In desperation, Yue Chenqing completely ignored Jiang Yexue's presence, and hurriedly stamped her feet and shouted, "Fourth Uncle! I didn't know he was here...don't leave, wait for me..."

Murong Chuyi said, "Don't follow me!"

He said don't follow, how could Yue Chenqing dare not listen, so he stood in the same place in frustration, looked at each other in blank dismay with the others, and the atmosphere fell into silence for a moment.

Jiang Yexue sighed, and finally decided to break the stifle first: "...Chen Qing, Chu Yi...does he still treat you like this?"