Douluo: Law of Heaven and Earth

Chapter 957: Lu Qibin's Past - Extra : Fateful Encounter

After Huo Xing came down the mountain, he did not move away immediately, but ran to a nearby mountain peak from which he could see the location of the sect. Relying on the vision brought by his eye martial spirit, he vaguely saw his master being taken to the Criminal Law Hall by the disciples of the Xingguan Sect.

"Something happened to the master!"

With a jolt in his heart, Huo Xing quickly fled in the direction away from the Xingguan Sect.

After running ten kilometers, Huo Xing's chest heaved violently. He fell into the bushes near the road, leaned his back against a tree as thick as a person, and gasped for breath.

After regaining some strength, he took out the address Xu Ming gave him from the inside of his clothes - Mianyang Village, the last house west of the north of the village... It just so happened that all the words were ones he recognized.

But his face was full of hesitation.

Reason told him not to get involved in this mess. He was free now and could go anywhere. As long as he stayed away from Xingguan Sect and Xingluo City, he could find a village, pretend to be a refugee and beg them to take him in, or sell himself to a noble lord in a nearby city and he could live a stable life again.

However, Master Xu Ming treated him very well. Although he did not teach him to read, he did not object to his learning on his own.

If it were another master, he would definitely beat and scold him!
After thinking for a while, Huo Xing regained his breath, supported himself on the tree trunk behind him, climbed up, and casually stuffed the address back into his clothes. As he walked, he muttered to himself:

"The master has violated the taboo of the Xingguan Sect, he is definitely dead!"

"If I find the address, something bad might happen!"

“It’s not worth it!”

"Thinking carefully, learning to read doesn't seem to be that important. It doesn't help me much in living a stable life..."

"...Right, that's right. I shouldn't be so stupid! I'm just an ordinary person with a stronger body. I'm not even a soul master. At most, I'm just a soul warrior with only level six soul power!"

"Even a Soul Emperor like me would get into trouble if he made a mistake. Why should I go? It's better to leave this area and go to a new city."

Just like that, Huo Xing prepared himself mentally, but when his hand groped for the pendant hanging around his neck, the small metal ball, he remained silent.

"Snapped!"

He didn't notice someone on the road and knocked him to the ground. Huo Xing was so scared that he immediately came to his senses and helped the man up. "Old man, I'm sorry, I didn't pay attention."

"fine."

The old farmer was a little scared when he saw Huo Xing was tall and strong, but he felt relieved when he saw his attitude and asked, "Where are you from?"

"I'm a refugee. There was a drought in the south, so I came here to seek refuge with my relatives." Huo Xing lied nervously and changed the subject, "Uncle, where is this place?"

"Mianyang Village."

Old Farmer's Road.

"Mianyang Village——"

Huo Xing never thought that he would arrive at the address by accident.

But this place is only about twenty miles away from Xingguan Sect, right?
In a trance, Huo Xing followed the old farmer's instructions and walked along the path for three or five miles. He saw a relatively open grassland. Hundreds of sheep were leisurely eating grass on the grassland, and the houses were built between the woods and the grassland!
"The last house to the west of the north of the village..."

When Huo Xing came to his senses, he had already arrived at his destination. As soon as he stopped, he heard footsteps and a voice behind him at the same time: "Who are you?"

Looking back, Huo Xing saw a girl with a scar on her left cheek. She looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where she was. He didn't think much about it and asked nervously, "Um, are you the daughter of the owner of this place?"

"I'm the owner of this place." Seeing that the tall and strong middle-aged man spoke so timidly, Li Yang had a hint of interest, but she quickly cut it off. After all, she didn't want to have too much contact with others. "What's the matter? If not, leave. I don't take in beggars."

Because Huo Xing was born in the countryside, his skin did not become whiter even after working as Xu Ming's servant for two years. Moreover, because he ran desperately for more than ten kilometers, his coarse linen clothes were torn in many places, and he fell several times on the road. He was completely disheveled and looked no less dirty than a farmer who had just returned from working in the fields.

It’s not wrong to call him a beggar.

"I... I'm not a beggar, I... I want to follow you." Huo Xing said stutteringly.

"abnormal?"

Li Yang could tell from Huo Xing's timidity and pretended to be alert. "Leave quickly, or I won't mind making you disappear. In this rural area, if someone dies, the city officials won't care. You don't look like a rich young man..."

"I'm not that kind of person. I, I... give it to you!"

Huo Xing was anxious and had no words, so he could only take out the address and hand it to Li Yang.

Li Yang took it and looked at the content above. His pupils constricted and his soul power leaked out of his body. The pressure from the Soul Master level made Huo Xing retreat continuously.

But this pressure came quickly and went away quickly.

"Who asked you to come?"

Li Yang stared at Huo Xing and asked in a low voice.

"My master!" Huo Xing was a little timid.

"Who is your master?"

Huo Xing was so scared that he sat on the ground. The hammer hanging on his neck jumped out of his collar. He said, "I don't... I don't know. He didn't tell me his name. Others call him Elder Xu, the elder of the Criminal Law Hall. I am just a servant..."

"Ok?"

Noticing the pendant, Li Yang frowned, feeling that it looked familiar - she had faked her death and escaped, and her brain had been in a dormant state for a long time, causing her to lose a small part of her memory.

"The elder of the Criminal Law Hall? His surname is Xu? That's a bit too much..." However, based on his familiarity with the pendant hanging around Huo Xing's neck, Li Yang decided on the candidate - Xu Ming.

She vaguely remembered that before she faked her death and escaped, she gave something to Xu Ming, which should be the pendant worn around this man's neck.

But why should it be given to Xu Ming?

Li Yang thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't remember it. He felt a little headache, so he asked, "Your master asked you to follow me? Why?"

"I don't know either, but my master seemed to be studying the taboos of the sect. He was discovered and asked me to come out and follow you." Huo Xing said cautiously.

Seeing that this man didn't know either, Li Yang frowned again, suspecting that he might have had some secret transaction with Xu Ming, and this servant who knew nothing came here just to report the news.

But why should he follow him?

She can't afford a slave!
"Give me the pendant."

Huo Xing quickly took off the small metal ball and handed it to Li Yang.

Li Yang took it and found that it was a Rubik's Cube. He began to rotate it and restored it to its original shape, but he did not pay attention to the pattern on it. Instead, he looked thoughtful.

"Is it a storage soul guide that can only be activated by soul power after it returns to normal? The encryption measures are indeed well done, but why is there nothing inside?"

Li Yang was slightly puzzled as he sensed with his soul power that there was nothing inside. However, it seemed that the big man really knew nothing at the moment. Even if he tortured him, he would not be able to get any information out of him.

Therefore, after thinking it over again and again, he decided to keep him, wanting to see if Xu Ming wanted to convey any message to him through this servant.

After all, this servant obviously knew that something had happened to Xu Ming, and he didn't look like a die-hard fan. He had his own little shrewdness.

Under normal circumstances, his best option would be to quickly get away from this area and go to other cities and towns - there are many refugees and vagrants on the mainland. Even if he has escaped in advance, even if the Xingguan Sect has all the means, there is no way they can find out where he will go next.

But he chose to find himself, risking the risk of being discovered, and also passed on the news that Xu Ming was in trouble... Unbelievable!
He is obviously just an ordinary person, at most a soul warrior with only level six soul power!
"What's your name?"

Li Yang asked.

"Huo Xing, the master got it for me." Huo Xing told him.

"It seems that he thinks highly of you." Li Yang knew that the elders of the Xingguan Sect would not give a name to someone for no reason, especially if the other party was a servant, unless he was really extraordinary. "What is a martial soul?"

"Eye."

Huo Xing didn't dare to hide it.

"No wonder."

Li Yang understood.

At Xu Ming's age, even with the cultivation of a Soul Emperor, he is already over ninety years old, and his eyesight is not as good as before. He needs someone to assist him in observing the positions of stars so that his research can continue.

Although Huo Xing, who possesses the martial spirit of eyes, is not a soul master, after the martial spirit is possessed, his eyesight is definitely much stronger than most soul masters who have not been exposed to spiritual power or have not received special eyesight training.

Moreover, she now had to conduct research alone, and she really needed someone with good eyesight to assist her. After all, she had deliberately scratched the cheek on the side of her left eye, and she didn't know if she had injured any part that might affect the eye, causing her vision to deteriorate significantly more than usual.

Human eyes are quite fragile. When one eye is injured, there is a high probability that the other eye will also have problems.

Therefore, although Li Yang's two eyes can still see things clearly like ordinary people, he can only see clearly within a hundred meters. Beyond a hundred meters, if there are no obvious features, the farther the distance, the blurrier the image presented in the brain.

It would be great if there was someone with good eyesight to help her observe the stars at this time.

Huo Xing didn't understand what Li Yang was saying, but he knew that he could stay now.

In the next few days, Li Yang announced to the other villagers in Mianyang Village that Huo Xing was his distant cousin who was very strong and could help herd sheep.

So, Huo Xing helped the villagers to herd sheep during the day, or helped other people in the village to take care of the fields, and get some rice to fill their stomachs; at night, he went to the nearby cliff to watch the stars with Li Yang.

In this way, half a year passed, and Huo Xing felt that this kind of life was quite fulfilling.

"No, even if I have a pair of good eyes, this kind of observation is still too slow." Although with the addition of Huo Xing, Li Yang's personal research progress has been much faster, but she still feels that with this progress alone, even if she dies of old age, she may not be able to complete her view of the universe!

After all, the movement of most stars in the sky is not as obvious as that of the sun and the moon, and requires years of observation.

In this case, obtaining the information left by predecessors and correcting the erroneous data can reduce a large part of her workload.

But considering that no noble would be willing to accept a disfigured girl, and Li Yang himself did not want to reveal his identity as a soul master, he could only settle for the second best and look for like-minded people.

"Where can I find it?"

Knowing that Li Yang's research had hit a bottleneck, Huo Xing had no other options but to ask for help.

However, Li Yang was not grateful. Moreover, without the convenience of the sect, she would have to take care of her own food, clothing, housing and transportation, which made her become very harsh: "Of course I'll go to the city. Is there anyone interested in stargazing in the countryside? They only care about food and clothing!"

Huo Xing was speechless, but deep down he felt that Li Yang's words were a bit harsh...
···
"Ms. Li Yang, there is something I have never understood. Could you please tell me?" Huo Xing suddenly asked after following Li Yang, who covered her face with a scarf, to Xingluo City.

"what?"

"Why do you want to study stargazing? Is it for the purpose of martial arts training?"

“It can only be said to be one of the reasons.”

Li Yang glanced at Huo Xing and said generously, "In the past, I have always been what others thought I was, satisfying others; but now, there is only one person I want to satisfy, and that is myself. To achieve this goal, strength and knowledge are both indispensable! And in order to satisfy myself, I have to sacrifice myself, and..."

Li Yang paused for a moment before continuing, "In short, you just need to understand that I will do whatever it takes to satisfy my thirst for knowledge. And you shouldn't think you understand me just because you've lived with me for half a year. Do you understand?"

"Ok."

Huo Xing nodded and asked no more questions, but he was pessimistic about whether he could find a hermit who studied stargazing in Xingluo City, the imperial capital.

After all, in his opinion, most soul masters only desire power, and the nobles will not open research materials to them, so it is too difficult to find like-minded people.

Li Yang didn't say much and took Huo Xing to find a special guild, located at the bottom of the Xingluo Auction House. Everyone in the guild wore masks and cloaks, concealing their identities, and chatted loudly about various topics.

Cultivation, economy, politics, women, etc.

Huo Xing even heard someone discussing the indecent behavior of the current Xingluo Emperor... This made him ashamed and even a little scared: "Where is this place?"

"A society."

Li Yang explained for him, "Here, everyone hides their identity. Ordinary people, soul masters, nobles, and sect disciples can speak freely here. Any prohibited topic can be mentioned here. No one will care. No one will care."

"Why?" Huo Xing felt that this was a little unreasonable.

"The more you suppress your emotions, the more you need to vent them. Otherwise, you will go crazy."

Li Yang laughed, "This place is full of talented people, and as long as you can afford the price, any service can be provided, including 'sex'."

Huo Xing opened his mouth, at a loss - are there really talented people in this place?

Then, Li Yang pulled him through the crowd, walked across the central square, and came to a relatively spacious room with wooden boards on all four walls, with documents on top.

Huo Xing walked forward and took a closer look. He didn't know many words and had no idea what was written on it.

“It’s a channel for communication between people.”

Li Yang explained, “Some topics and questions are too difficult to talk about, or they cannot be put on the table for research, so everyone has established this kind of communication channel board, pinning their own questions on the public academic bulletin board. If others are interested, they can take a piece, go back to research, give an answer, and then pin it back to the original question.

There are also some outside.

However, this place is more open. Some sensitive topics cannot be nailed on the academic bulletin boards of the outside world, otherwise they will be torn off and even reported.

The content we want to study is not a sensitive topic in Xingluo City, but it may attract the attention of people from Xingguan Sect, so we can only put it here. Here, people don’t know each other’s true identities. Even if someone from Xingguan Sect finds out, the high-level people dare not come here to cause trouble. After all, God knows which rich young men are among these people who hide their identities, and they can’t expose them to the public. "

"Are there such public academic bulletin boards in other cities?" Huo Xing nodded blankly, and then recalled that there seemed to be no such academic bulletin boards in the cities near his hometown.

"Generally speaking, only the main city level cities have them, small cities don't have them." Li Yang took out a pair of documents from the metal ball, found an empty fence, and nailed them on it. "Why are you asking this?"

"I followed the master for two years and the young lady for half a year. I also tried my best to learn to read...
As I learn more and more words, I find myself spending more and more time thinking...

I know I can't say anything profound, but I have a feeling that if everyone could learn to read, maybe the world would be a different place...

So, I thought, if I have the opportunity in the future, I could go back to my hometown and do an academic column there...

Well, I know I don’t have much culture, and academics are definitely not as elegant as aristocrats, but for country folk, maybe being able to communicate with strangers through text is a good thing...”

"and many more!"

Li Yang interrupted him, "Why do you want to learn to read? You're just a servant! What's the point of knowing how to read? You're thinking too much. For an ordinary person like you who isn't even a spirit master, it won't do you any good! Also, going back to your hometown? Setting up an academic board? What can those illiterate people communicate about? Really -

You, you...
As an ordinary person, you really broadened my horizons! I have so much to say, but you left me at a loss for words.

Forget it, don't think too much. For someone like you, just living a stable life is enough...

Help me nail one on every fence!"

Li Yang, who didn't know how to complain, stuffed a handful of papers with information about the movement of stars into Huo Xing's arms, and gave him a hammer and some nails.

"After we're done, let's go outside and buy some food, and then come back to take a look in the evening."

After Li Yang left, Huo Xing remained silent, wondering if he was really too naive. He picked up the hammer, held the paper, and came to the new fence...

(End of this chapter)