It’s strange. She and I were going to Shenzhen Book City to read and buy books, but how did we end up taking a bus to this botanical park?
"Haha! Jianquan, this is Xianhu Botanical Park!" The girl who was laughing mischievously was called Hedan. We have known each other for two years and have always been respectful to each other, but in the eyes of others, we have long been considered a pair of lovers. Despite this, Hedan did not alienate me, nor did she mind those strange looks. She always followed me silently. Whenever I said I wanted to go somewhere to play, she would always come at my beck and call.
Maybe it's because I'm strong on the outside but weak on the inside? I've been learning martial arts from my master since I was a kid, and he always told me that the downfall of a generation of heroes was caused by girls. Maybe this is his complaint about not being able to find a wife even in his fifties. But I was as timid as a mouse and didn't dare to tell her that I fell in love with her at first sight two years ago.
"What are you daydreaming about? I've already bought the tickets!" She held two tickets. The park name was written in sky blue, and there was a rippling lake on the ticket. I thought that was the Fairy Lake, right? Looking at the picture, it didn't seem to be anything special, and it didn't exude any spiritual energy.
"Passengers going to Xianhu Zoo and Botanical Park, please line up and get on the bus!" The voice of a sweet girl came from the radio, and it was she who pulled me back to reality from my contemplation. I immediately grabbed Hedan's hand and ran towards the tourist bus. In our opinion, holding hands was a common action, and she didn't take it seriously at all.
"It's okay, right? We didn't take a photo together at the gate…" She held a digital camera tightly in her hand. It was the gift I gave her on her birthday a year ago. I didn't expect that it was still intact. I wonder if I kept the joke that "the camera can only save photos of you and me" when I joked with her at that time.
This zoo and botanical park is really huge. Just looking at the map printed on the back of the ticket makes me dizzy. It takes more than two or three hours to walk through it! I didn't complain out loud because I didn't want to disturb her interest in viewing plants, and I also hoped that this would be a good time and place for me to talk about my inner thoughts.
Passing through the gate covered with yellow glazed tiles, I recalled the copper characters engraved on the pure white door lintel. I seemed to have realized something. After thinking for a while, I found that the six characters were not ordinary stone carvings, but were drawn with a sharp object. This technique, except for the sword, did not use any other tools to make the carved characters lively and elegant, and not lacking in aggressiveness.
Who carved the words? I can tell from the words that the person who carved the words has deep inner strength and extraordinary swordsmanship. I think a hero is a hero, and I can be considered a sword lover. I am not showing off. I have participated in several international martial arts competitions on behalf of the national martial arts team, and won many championships and a lot of prize money. In addition, I also love to read martial arts novels. I even learned sword moves from the novels and forged new moves, which helped me to improve my swordsmanship.
Hedan was probably feeling bored, so he leaned against the window, watching the countless greens passing by, the vehicles speeding by, and the red-crowned cranes flying across the lake.
"What a beautiful lake! We can go boating on the lake, it will be great!" It turned out that the drive only took 15 minutes to reach the Fairy Lake Scenic Area in the park, which is known as the paradise on earth. This is indeed a beautiful landscape. I don't know why we didn't even care about the vehicles on both sides of the road, and we just crossed it desperately…
We almost became a pair of desperate couples. We were scared back to our senses by the sudden brake sound. Fortunately, the truck was not going very fast and stopped two meters away from us. We were still stupid and pretended that the driver did not exist. We glanced at the truck and continued to move forward. The driver was still in shock and left cursing.
"What happened just now?" He Dan touched my arm. It was obvious that she was also deeply fascinated by the lake view and couldn't get away. Even a martial arts fanatic like me who has little knowledge of aesthetics was fascinated by the fairy lake. Isn't that a fairyland ink painting in front of me? Look at those cranes? It was like the mist in a dream. The sky was gloomy and dark, and it seemed that it was about to rain. But I was hoping for a drizzle, which would make the fairy lake, this illusory fairyland, more prominent.
Walking along a gravel path by the lake, I found that the closer I got to the lake, the more I felt like jumping into the center of it. On the shore of the lake were tree branches drooping over the surface of the lake. I didn't understand why the treetops of the trees, which were clearly growing upright, were drooping over the surface of the lake? Could it be that the trees were also attracted to the center of the lake and wanted to jump into it? Unfortunately, they couldn't, as their roots were deep in the ground, which had long eradicated their desire.
Looking from afar, this fairy lake is as smooth as a green mirror that one cannot bear to scratch. Occasionally, two red-crowned cranes that go out to look for food are disobedient and hold small fish in their mouths, causing ripples on the lake, but they are quickly smoothed out. This lake seems to have a kind of enchanting magic that makes people fall in love with it unconsciously.
"I love lotus. I want to row a boat to the center of the lake and pick a floating lotus leaf with my own hands!" He Dan said, grabbing my sleeve and begging, "Jianquan, can you accompany me to go boating?"
I hardened my heart and thought that today I must accompany Hedan to paddle the flawless jade of Xianhu Lake. After crossing a winding path, we led to a flat corner of Xianhu Lake. There was a wooden sign hanging there, which read: "Two-person pedal boat is 40 yuan, four-person 50…" I asked the boatman if he had any boats with wooden oars, and he said no, only speedboats with motors. I thought this was fine, it would be fine without the motor, and it would be the same with wooden oars.
So Hedan and I rented a speedboat and asked the old boatman for a wooden oar. The boatman seemed confused by me and looked at me strangely when he handed the wooden oar to me.
So the boat started to move, and Hedan sat opposite me. Her eyes flickered, her face blushed shyly, she inadvertently put her fingers on her lips, and giggled, her laughter rippling between my eardrums like a silver bell, intoxicating me. I thought to myself, this is a good time to confess, right?
Just as I was about to speak, she told me with a look of surprise: "I felt something hard in the lake!" At that time, she was hanging her hands in the lake, enjoying the cool surface of the lake, splashing water on the surface. I was startled when I heard there was something hard in the water, and I swallowed back what I was about to say.
I stopped paddling and looked sideways. There was nothing on the lake. I reached into the water for a while but found nothing. There were only countless intermittent inscriptions on the outside of the boat…
"What are all these?" I looked at Hedan. She was a Bachelor of Arts who studied classical Chinese, so she understood it naturally at a glance.
"Those are all the names of swords!" After she said that, I looked carefully for a while and found that each vertical row was engraved with the name of a sword. After He Dan translated it, I roughly remembered the meaning of these words. The one closest to me was a sword called Qi Jue, but I didn't know which seven Jue it was; the one next to it was the Zi Lai Sword, but I didn't know the meaning of it just by looking at the name; until the third one, I had a little clue, it was the Sword of Luoshen, which reminded me of the name of the sword in the legend of Luoshen. I wonder if it is really related to Luoshen? If it is, it would be great.
All these strange signs made us shout out in unison: "Looking for the sword on the boat!"
I wondered who carved the ancient characters on the boat? That person must have read an ancient idiom story and suddenly had the idea to carve characters on this speedboat. But if he thought so, he would have a lot of free time! He Dan and I counted the sword names on both sides, and there are at least 300 of them, not counting the invisible bottom of the boat…
"I think something is fishy. I have touched these characters. Although they were carved with a knife, the strokes are strong and murderous!" After I said that, He Dan pinched my face and said, "What a fool! What era is this? You are still scaring me. Isn't this just a misunderstanding of the children when they were reading the idiom story without adults explaining it, and they are causing trouble on the boat?"
But I absolutely do not accept this explanation. A child who knows ancient characters must be a genius! So I couldn't help but have a sense of foreboding, as if the bottom of the lake was really filled with countless sword handles. Just thinking about it was very frightening. According to legend, the sword tomb is the place where swords are buried. Swords are used to seal the ghosts of dead warriors. If the swords are pulled out, the consequences will be disastrous. But I only read this from some martial arts novels, so it is doubtful whether it is true or not.
However, the thing that worried me the most finally happened. Hedan explored the water again and touched the hard object again. This time she held it tightly. Before I could react and stop her, she had pulled the object out of the water.
"So, this lake is very shallow? Look, this Five Spirit Sword is only one and a half meters long, but it has already reached the bottom of the lake." As soon as she finished speaking, I immediately saw a dirty bone hand groping from the side of the boat and grabbing He Dan's hand. After a few seconds of shock, she screamed: "Don't grab me, help me…"
In a flash, I grabbed the Five Spirit Sword and swung it into the water, cutting it off. The arm was hanging on Hedan's arm, tightly clenched, and the wound was dripping with green liquid, which was disgusting. That arm was the most disgusting I had ever seen. The blackened bones were covered with a sticky substance like black mud instead of flesh. I tried to peel the hand off Hedan's arm, but it took a lot of effort to get it off. I threw it into the lake, and when I looked at Hedan's arm again, there were five bloody marks…
"What a cruel ghost! Is there a sword tomb at the bottom of this fairy lake? Is the sword just pulled out the ghost's exclusive sword during his lifetime?" This Five Spirit Sword was indeed full of spiritual energy. I was confused and had fragments of memories of this warrior before his death in my mind.
I am standing by the shore of Fairy Lake as a bystander…
I seemed to be indifferent to the bloody martial arts battle in front of me. The lake was surrounded by many warriors holding or carrying scabbards, with extraordinary heroic or ugly appearances. On the calm lake, two people were circling each other with their toes tapping the ripples on the water. Neither of them showed any flaws, waiting for the opportunity to see which one would be killed by the other's eyes first.
Suddenly, a handsome young scholar wearing green clothes and a green crown on his head leaped over with his sword pointed directly at his opponent's chest. This move came so fast that the middle-aged bearded man licked the blade with his tongue, inserted the sword into the lake and moved in circles, creating a wall of water in front of him, wrapping himself in it.
The scholar naturally couldn't see what was going on inside, so he immediately stopped and changed his thrust to a horizontal chop, but he could only cut a seam. However, he could no longer see any figure in the seam, so he realized that he had been tricked. Unfortunately, it was too late. A figure suddenly jumped out from under the scholar's feet, and the man shouted, "Look at my heart-piercing sword!" After that, a piercing pain extended from the scholar's crotch to his heart. When the sword was pulled out again, the scholar sank to the bottom of the lake…
The man held the scholar's sword and said with a smile, "The scholar's deadly sword is mine! Hahaha! Who else dares to challenge me?"
This man was very arrogant, but few people on the lakeside dared to challenge him. At that time, there was only a small boat in the middle of the lake. He took the opportunity to carve words on the boat, which were the five words "Scholar's Deadly Sword". Looking around the boat, there were dozens of names carved on it. Obviously, dozens of swordsmen had been killed at the bottom of the lake. Looking at the victorious warrior, he thrust the Scholar's Deadly Sword vertically towards the place where the scholar was buried, and the sword shadow disappeared immediately.
"Hmph! Sword Bull God, you are too arrogant. Do you think you can be arrogant just because you are the ring master? Look at my rose sword…" A sword came from behind unexpectedly, and the sword swayed left and right like a spirit snake. The swaying sword light dazzled the man's eyes, but he finally blocked it. She failed to hit the target, and the purple-clothed woman holding the rose sword flicked her sleeves and flipped over to land on the lake.
"This woman's lightness skills are amazing. The ripples she creates on the water are very small." I listened to the discussions of the warriors nearby, while I just looked at her. This woman was agile and elegant, petite but somewhat charming, which immediately made my heart beat fast.
The woman cried out and used the Rose Spirit Snake Sword Formation. It was like a spirit snake covered with thorns swimming around, quickly biting the proud warrior. The Sword Bull God had a sturdy body, but was still light. He waved his sword with a rustling sound, and actually set off a water tornado-like move on the lake. The scene of a water dragon fighting a spirit snake was also played.
The rose sword was not as strong as the other swords, but as flexible as silk. She wrapped her sword around the warrior's sword, and her legs were not idle either. She kicked him into the water. There was silence for a moment. The lake was as calm as a mirror, and the man did not move anymore.
"This Rose Princess is indeed an extraordinary martial artist, and she looks like a fairy from heaven! She has stopped the Sword Bull God's undefeated streak of fifteen consecutive games!" Another round of discussions arose nearby.
At this moment, I couldn't help but take a step forward. My body stepped on the lake uncontrollably, and I flew into the air with ripples. Yes! I was indeed flying into the air. How could I feel so light? Could it be that I had transformed into a martial arts master? I landed on the boat and stood opposite Princess Qiangwei. I could see more clearly now. Isn't this delicate and graceful girl He Dan? Did she also come to the ancient times with me? Or was it my eyes that were blurry? But she looked solemn, as if there was tenderness and sadness in her eyes.
I hesitated to make a move, but just stood there holding the sword, staring at her infatuatedly…
"Do you really want to fight me?" Princess Rose said, tears streaming down her face and the corners of her mouth twitching, as if she was about to burst into tears.
"I don't want to see people cry, but I must see people bleed." When did I say such cruel words? How come I can't even control my thoughts?
"Okay! I'll grant your wish. Let you taste my rose sword…" When she swung the sword, I actually saw a teardrop as big as a bean flying out and landing on the lake with a dripping sound.
I took the sword and shouted, "Look at the Five Spirit Sword, the Fire Spirit…" After that, I saw sparks appearing on the edge of the sword. It was actually balls of fire blooming on the sword, and then flew onto Rose, causing a slight explosion immediately.
Although the explosion was minor, it was enough to have an effect. Princess Rose quickly retreated to the edge of the boat, stabilized her momentum, and was about to counterattack. A spirit snake swam around the flame stone of the true evil spirit and went straight to my neck. I was frightened and did not dodge or block it. I closed my eyes and waited for the sword to stab me.
"Ah! You…" Rose suddenly stopped stabbing, but the snake still left a painful bloody mark on her neck. "Why didn't you block my sword?"
"I don't want you to suffer anymore. Everyone here knows how powerful my Five Spirit Sword is. If you kill me, you will naturally become the overlord of this fairy lake. Then you can get away from here, and no one will challenge you anymore…"
"Come on, stab this sword into my chest and finish this duel!" I said such a righteous word, but I didn't want to die at this moment! But my mind didn't allow me to control it, I was forced to taste the taste of death…
"Sword spirit, why are you doing this? Why are you doing this for me?" After saying that, she threw the Five Spirit Sword into the center of the lake. We looked at each other for a long time, our eyes filled with tears of excitement.
"Uh… what… what?" I lowered my head to look at my left chest. A sharp blade emitting silver light had pierced through my heart. I touched my chest and looked at the Rose Princess affectionately. The blood in my mouth was sweet and kept flowing out.
“Haha! Haha! How could I, the Sword Bull God, be defeated by a woman like you?” After saying that, he grabbed my Five Spirit Sword and pulled it out. I fell into the lake. The last thing I saw was the Sword Bull God killing the crying Rose Princess. As the green lake water covered my eyes and blurred them, I sank to the bottom of the lake…
"Wow! I'm dead!" I woke up in shock and found myself still on the boat, but there was no trace of Hedan on the opposite side.
I shouted He Dan's name loudly on the boat, and recalled the illusion just now in panic. I still held the so-called Five Spirit Sword in my hand. Looking at the sword again, the silver-white blade was revealed in the gradually peeling rust. The sword has gradually returned to its original appearance.
Could she have been captured by the ghost? Where could she be? The sky gradually darkened, and dark shadows began to appear in the surrounding scenery.
"Come on! Go and save my Rose Princess…" Suddenly a cold and scary voice came from the other side of the boat, and I was startled. I immediately put the sword in front of me.
"After the left hand is cut off, the right hand?" I trembled, completely forgetting that I was an authority in the martial arts world and could not withstand these supernatural tests. A muddy and rotten body climbed up the side of the boat. His facial features were unrecognizable, or rather, only the two green flames in his eye sockets could be called "eyes". The words spoken from his mouthless mouth were as low and silent as if they were processed by a computer.
"You… who… who are you?" I spoke incoherently in panic.
"I am your previous life, the owner of the Five Spirit Sword in your hand, the Sword Spirit!" The Sword Spirit's voice was very heavy, and I could sense the hesitation in his tone.
"How can I save Hedan? Didn't you capture her?" After saying that, I shook the sword and saw the symbol of the five elements on it.
"She was captured by the evil spirit of the Sword Bull God. To save her, you must rely on me, Jianquan!" He said, pointing to the five elements symbol on the sword. "The five elements above are actually just in name only. There is only fire among the five elements, nothing else…"
"Ah! This is a blatant deception!" I was terrified, thinking that I didn't know if the sword could be used at that time. Besides, if we encountered a water monster, wouldn't the flame be extinguished in an instant? It would be completely useless!
“Use my power. The Five Spirits Fire is a kind of holy fire. It will not go out even in water, but it can evaporate those evil spirits.” After the sword spirit said this, it immediately turned into a ball of warm and holy light, wrapping around the sword blade.
Now, I have no choice but to fight for my life. He Dan was captured by the evil spirit of the Sword Bull God, so she must be somewhere at the bottom of the lake. There is no time to lose. If time is too long, I am afraid that CPR and artificial respiration will not be able to save my He Dan. I still want to marry her, and I also want…
Thinking of this, I jumped into the lake without hesitation. With the help of the holy light on the sword, I saw the secrets under the fairy lake. This is indeed a sword tomb full of evil spirits! Hundreds of corpses were rotten, but fortunately they were all sealed by their own swords. If all the warriors' souls were pulled out of the sword and then awakened, the consequences would be disastrous, and it would surely cause a great disaster on earth!
I don't know if it was the holy light protecting me or my breath-holding diving skills. I didn't need to breathe for a long time. I searched around in the lake, but my vision was not clear. Suddenly I found that my clothes were hooked. It was a skeleton's fingers that hooked my clothes, and they broke when I moved around. I turned around to look at the skull face, put my hands together and bowed, said "Don't blame me if there is anything strange", and continued to move forward, venturing to the darkest place.
The holy light was indeed holy. The black foggy seawater immediately disappeared when it encountered the holy light. As the field of vision gradually widened, I found a huge figure sitting on a stone, waiting. In front of him lay a young girl. The huge monster had two demon horns on its head, and its terrifying skull face was murderous. Shouldn't he have been killed in the Fairy Lake competition? Who removed his seal?
I no longer thought about it. The Flame Stone of the True Evil Spirit . I used my best skills and used a combination of "Fire Cloud Evil God" and "Yue Girl Sword Technique" at the bottom of the lake. The rising holy fire illuminated the darkness around me, and I chopped it on the head. The evil spirit of the Sword Bull God actually blocked my holy attack and only clamped my sword with two fingers. It was so powerful that I quickly moved away from him. He finally stood up, holding a huge black broadsword in his hand, which was different from what I saw in the Sword Spirit era. I mistakenly thought that it might be Yang Guo's "Black Iron Heavy Sword"!
"What should I do? I am now just a bunch of millet and rifles against airplanes and cannons!" What am I talking about? Maybe I was frightened and mentally disturbed.
"Alas! You are considered a martial arts champion, but how come you can't even wield a sword?" The flame suddenly made a sound, and the sword spirit was also stunned, "The sword is mainly used for stabbing, and chopping is supplementary!"
I was immediately called back to my martial arts soul. I never thought that after participating in the National Martial Arts Competition for so many years and winning numerous awards, I would make the most basic mistake at this moment. So I summoned up the courage to compete, looking at He Dan lying on the bottom of the lake, dying, imagining that was the prize for winning the championship.
So I played normally towards the target, no more fancy moves, and although my movements were slower underwater, the opponent also slowed down accordingly, so we were still fighting at a fair speed. After all, this sword bull god had lived at the bottom of the lake for a long time, was familiar with the water, and had the advantage of home court. I couldn't resist for a while, and although I didn't get chopped to pieces, I was also exhausted.
I covered the wound on my chest and never gave up any chance to attack, and the flames grew stronger as my fighting spirit grew. I had never tried to fight for my life on the battlefield, but now I was willing to risk it all for my beloved. I wanted to save Hedan, my beloved.
After another round of swordplay, I actually cut a notch on the suspected black iron heavy sword. I didn't make any more efforts in the end, and was bounced back by his greatsword, which was considered a wonderful offensive. The Sword Bull God looked at the notch on the sword and was angry. The black mist rising from his body quickly enveloped my body. The holy light could no longer play a role. In the darkness, a pair of red eyes stared at me. The ghostly figure like a wolf was not in front of my eyes. The sword did not arrive, but the face arrived first. I didn't expect that he wanted to scare me to death, but how could I be afraid after seeing so many skeletons? So I swung the glowing sword blade and stabbed it into his left eye. The erupting black mist dissipated from all around. It swayed desperately and ran around with its face covered. I took the opportunity to walk forward and hugged Hedan in my arms.
"Jianquan, take Qiangwei away quickly. I will use fire to suppress the Sword Bull God. You must protect Qiangwei for me!" After the sword spirit said this, the sword blade inserted into the Sword Bull God suddenly glowed with golden light. I, holding Hedan, also had to leave the bottom of the lake quickly. I felt that I didn't have enough energy, but I had to hold on to the end and must not let Hedan drown!
Not long after, I miraculously sent Hedan to the ship. Her dying face, as white as ice, made me feel pity. "No, Hedan, you can't die. I still want to confess to you. I like you and want to marry you…" I kept shouting, but I couldn't feel her breath. I touched her arms as white as ice and snow, and I was heartbroken.
"Compress her chest and give her artificial respiration?" I thought to myself, this is not allowed between men and women, right? But if I continue to think about it, He Dan will die! At this moment, I no longer hesitated, covered her lips with my lips, exhaled my oxygen to her, and continued to press her chest with my hands.
Suddenly I felt a stream of water spraying in my mouth, which was so disgusting. Then Hedan woke up, her eyes still squinting. Seeing her wake up, I was so excited that I couldn't help but hug her wet body tightly, giving each other warmth, my heart full of happiness of surviving the disaster.
"Sword spirit, I see you're okay. I was so worried about you…" Hedan's tender call made me feel uneasy.
"What sword spirit? I am Jianquan!" I said.
"What Sword Spring? You are clearly the sword spirit! I am the Rose Princess, the Rose who loves you, don't you remember? Humph! An ungrateful man…" She snorted softly, then fell on my chest and fell into a deep sleep.
At this moment, I don't have the mood to think about whether the girl in my arms is Rose or He Dan? However, no matter what, the He Dan in my memory is by my side. Even if I am asked to transform into a sword spirit and continue my past life relationship with Princess Rose, I am willing to do so.