Mortal Bones

The second day.

Same time, same place.

After Xu Taiping went down the mountain after practicing his sword skills, the old man with the flying sword appeared again in front of the cliff where Laoyuetan Waterfall was located.

"Three thousand three hundred swords? It's just three hundred more swords, nothing more."

After the old man counted the sword marks on the cliff, he still only said this sentence, and then proudly wielded his sword and pierced the air again.

…

The third day.

Unlike before, Xu Taiping went down the mountain an hour early today.

This made the old man who also came an hour early but still missed Xu Taiping a little unhappy.

"Coming down the mountain so early, you have learned to be lazy instead of mastering the sword. I want to see how many sword strikes you have today. If it is less than yesterday, you might as well not come tomorrow."

The old man stepped on the flying sword and flew elegantly to the cliff of the waterfall.

After counting today's sword marks on the cliff, the old man frowned, and then said with a hint of reluctance: "It's only 3,600 swords. I thought there were many more."

After saying that, the flying sword under his body suddenly changed direction, flew out into the night sky, and finally disappeared.

…

The fourth day.

On this day, Xu Taiping went down the mountain an hour earlier than the previous day.

As a result, the old man, who was also an hour earlier than the previous day, passed by him again.

"This kid, why is it getting earlier every day? Do you still need to practice this sword?"

The old man looked at Xu Taiping who was jumping down the mountain very depressedly, and cursed loudly in his mouth.

Then he flew to the cliff with his sword and carefully counted the sword marks on the cliff. When he discovered that Xu Taiping had stabbed 4,100 swords today, the dissatisfied look on his face gradually faded away. .

"Young man, you still can't keep your composure. You could have stabbed five thousand swords if you persisted, but you gave up just for the sake of two hours of enjoyment. That's all."

After saying that, he flew away with his sword again.

For the next five days, the number of swords struck by Xu Taiping began to increase at a rate of 600 swords every day.

By the ninth day, the sword marks on the wall had turned into 6,701 sword marks.

Similarly, Xu Taiping's time to go down the mountain is also advancing day by day.

However, the advance time is not as fixed as the increase in the number of swords. Sometimes it is a cup of tea in advance, sometimes it is a stick of incense in advance, and sometimes it is an hour or two in advance.

It is precisely because of this that these three elders never met Xu Taiping in Laoyuetan.

"That's all. Seeing that you are quite diligent, I will come directly at Yinshi tomorrow."

Looking at the dense sword marks on the cliff, the old man said helplessly.

I thought to myself, I must have met this kid now, right?

…

The tenth day.

The old man came to Laoyuetan when his genius dawned.

"This kid hasn't arrived yet today? Huh, that diligence is just an act."

Sansan layman glanced around Laoyuetan, and when he didn't see Xu Taiping, he snorted coldly.

But immediately he raised the corner of his mouth and said:

"It's good that it's late. I can take this opportunity to punish this kid so that he can be more honest when learning swordsmanship in the future."

The more the old man thought about it, the more interesting he became.

He put his hands in his sleeves and sat on the big rock in the center of the Moon Lake where Xu Taiping often sat. He smiled and thought about how to punish Xu Taiping later.

"How about doubling the number of occurrences today based on yesterday?"

"No, this kind of punishment is too simple."

"Otherwise, let him use a flying sword to move rocks?"

"Forget it, we are monks, not hard laborers."

"Otherwise, let him start wielding a sword underwater?"

"No, it will probably be difficult for him to achieve his underwater sword-wielding qualifications in a year or two."

Just as the old man was thinking hard, a red sun quietly poked its little head out of the sea of ​​clouds.

A ray of sunshine happened to shine on the old man's face.

"How come it's already broad daylight and this guy hasn't arrived yet?"

The old man, dazzled by the sun, suddenly woke up and stood up.

The flying sword that was originally swimming like a fish beside him also flew back to him with a "buzz" sound.

And at this moment, just like Xu Taiping who had been waiting all morning on the first day, the old man's eyes fell on a wooden board on the cliff.

"It seems I didn't hang this board."

He immediately saw the new wooden board on the outside.

"Could it be that the kid left it behind?"

While the old man was thinking this, he flew out with his sword. In the blink of an eye, he stepped on the flying sword and stood in front of the wooden board.

He looked closely at the wooden board and saw a line of words carved with a sword on it.

The text is square and straight, as if printed.

The old man nodded at first, as if he liked the word very much, but when he read the entire text on the board, his face suddenly fell.

I saw what was written on the wooden board:

"Elder Sansan, I am Xu Taiping, a disciple of the seventh peak. Before dawn today, the disciple received an urgent letter from the peak master, asking the disciple to rush to the Baicao Hall of the main peak early this morning. Therefore, I cannot practice sword today, so I leave this letter here. I hope the elders will understand.”

The old man looked at the words on the wooden sign and was speechless for a long time.

It wasn't until a gust of cool breeze blew by that he suddenly flicked his sleeves and said:

"Zhao Qian! You're itchy again, aren't you?"

……

Time goes back one hour.

At dawn.

"Huh..."

In the secret room of Fanlou, Xu Taiping, who had been soaking in the acupuncture and acupuncture soup for two hours, finally ran the Danxia Jue for five big cycles, and at the same time completely dissolved the medicinal power of the two cups of Longdan wine.

For a moment, he felt refreshed.

"Looking at the situation in the Qi Palace, I should be able to achieve a small success in Wangyou Realm in a month or two."

Xu Taiping stood up from the bathtub naked.

"Uh uh..."

But when he raised his legs to step out of the bathtub, he felt a piercing pain in several acupuncture points on his thighs.

Although it was not the first time he soaked in the acupuncture and acupuncture soup, the pain from the acupuncture points still made him grimace.

But no matter how painful it was, the effect of this acupuncture and acupuncture soup on improving the speed of cultivation was very significant.

Now Xu Taiping's cultivation speed is almost comparable to that of Xuanling Bone.

"Jiji!"

Just then, the voice of the little monkey Ping'an suddenly sounded outside Fanlou.

"What's wrong, Ping'an?"

Xu Taiping shouted to the outside of the door while putting on his clothes.

"Letter, there is a letter, urgent letter!"

Ping'an shouted outside the door in a somewhat hurried tone.

"Help me get it in."

Xu Taiping pressed his hand on the bronze mirror on the table, and the stone door of Fanlou slowly opened.

At this moment, he was really in so much pain that he didn't want to move any more.

"Jiji."

After the door of Fanlou opened, the little monkey Ping'an and Bai Yu rushed in one after another.