Chapter 7 Kofukuji Temple
Yamato—the once prosperous city—was also affected by the war, and the originally prosperous capital turned into ruins in just a few days.
Chen and his party were walking on the road to Yamato. There were many historical sites on the road, and the ancient city walls that had been through vicissitudes exuded a mellow historical atmosphere.
Walking on the ancient road, it seems like you have crossed the boundaries of time, and each step brings the flow of time. What appears in front of you is no longer the abandoned ancient road, but the once prosperous street. In the end, those illusory scenes are shattered, and people will find that it seems like they have passed by a dream, or entering the dream of this once prosperous city. People walking on the ancient road can't help but caress the stone bricks washed by time.
Perhaps this prosperous city has not disappeared, but is just a sleeper in this ruin, waiting for the opportunity to show itself again. It seems that this destruction is just the starting point for its next rebirth. War can destroy the present and the past, but it cannot destroy the future. Some of the people who persist in the war rely on their wishes, expectations for the future, or perhaps the rules in their hearts. These make them persevere in suffering.
Chen looked at the capital that had turned into ruins and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
I still remember that after fighting with the bandits, Jue had seen that tragic scene, perhaps she was frightened. She was reluctant to get close to Chen for a long time because she knew that many people died at Chen's hands.
Ju once asked Chen one night: "Why do you kill so many people? Maybe some of them are forced, just scare them away, right?" Chen was unwilling to refute that those bandits no longer just rob others of money to survive. They are greedy for some of the power they have and can deprive ordinary people of their lives. Perhaps this time Chen and Shangquan let them go, and someone will be killed next time, and the most important thing is that if they just disperse the bandits, their idea of killing people for the sake of killing will not change. Chen also told Ju, but Ju still couldn't accept it. Perhaps it is a bit reluctant for a girl with a weak personality to accept such a cruel fact.
But Chen will still do that no matter what, perhaps what he insisted on was not the so-called justice, and he wanted to bring all the bandits to justice; or perhaps it was not chaos, not killing for the sake of killing. Instead, what was done in his heart was doing, and good or evil was not important, what was important was what he thought. Chen saw good and evil in this chaotic world, but these were not enough to describe the world comprehensively. Good and evil were just the standards for some people to measure things, and this could not represent everything.
"Maybe, Ju hates me a little. Is it still unacceptable..." Chen looked at Jue walking next to Wenwuro and silently said. Jue and Wenwuro have been very close recently, maybe because of a little admiration. Even if he practices swordsmanship, his heart is still a little turbulent. Chen did not regard Jue as a childhood sweetheart, but more as a sister. But Chen still felt a little disappointed in his heart, after all, he is alienated from him. Chen's originally calm face also showed a bit of loneliness. Maybe it would be better to leave himself for Jue.
The group walked from the ancient road into the remote path and finally walked into a forest. Sasha, the sound of her clothes rubbing through the leaves came.
After a while, the group finally emerged from the lush woods. In front of them was a somewhat broken temple. It was not because of the aging, so it should be because of the war. Sure enough, the temple built next to the prosperous capital was also affected. The group thought and began to step onto the stone steps of the temple.
…………
The group walked into the somewhat broken temple. Perhaps because of the disaster, there were very few monks in the temple. Shangquan stopped a little novice monk and handed him a letter to him, asking him to bring it to Master Treasure. The little novice monk looked at the group of people, turned around and walked towards the side hall.
But after a while, a monk wearing a blue-gray monk's robe walked out. The monk was not as thin as other monks, and his muscle lines could not be concealed by the monk's robe.
The monk walked in and asked, "But Lord Shangquan and Lord Xingchuan?" The monk asked naturally, "I'm not humble or arrogant."
Shangizumi showed her hand and said, "That's right, I happened to visit today and wanted to witness the style of Master Treasure. How about it?"
Treasure chuckled and said, "It's okay, please come in and have some rest." Everyone followed Treasure into the side hall.
Although there have been war damage here, many things are still well preserved. Everyone sat down and talked to Master Treasure for a long time, talking about everything, sometimes mixed with some understanding of sword and martial arts. Ju was not interested in these, so she stood up and observed some antiques in the side hall.
Treasure said: "The few of you here are all people with great sword skills, especially Shangquan Jun and Xingchuan Jun. The sword skills have reached the extraordinary level. I want to discuss it, but I wonder what you think?" Treasure looked at Shangquan and Chen sincerely.
Shangquan thought about it and said, "Yes, I happened to ask me that I also want to see the master's Treasure Academy's spear technique..."
Everyone walked out of the side hall and came to the martial arts training ground next to it. The terrain here was flat and very spacious.
Shangquan stood calmly on the stone bricks with a wooden knife in his hand. The treasure was held by the wooden knife in his hand and adjusted his own state.
At this time, we had not invented a safer weapon. We usually use wooden weapons for training. Although they are made of wooden, they are also dangerous. If they are not controlled properly, they will be injured in the skin and severely. In this era, there are many people who died accidentally due to improper practice of martial arts. However, martial arts masters like Treasure and Shangquan have long been able to control their own strength well, so there is no need to worry about this.
The two of them were in a stalemate for a long time, and because they could not find each other's flaws, they were unable to take action. Although Treasure was a monk, for Buddhism, he chose to give up the stalemate and instead started attacking. The spear swept across, and a strong wind blew. Shangquan stepped back calmly. Treasure took the opportunity to take a big step forward and another chop. Shangquan opened it lightly.
The competition between the two martial arts masters did not have too many fancy or moves, but they were personal reactions and will. Fungoro and Izu looked at the two on the field with dull eyes. They also had some knowledge. They could see that the various movements of the two were very skillful and smooth. In comparison, their movements were simply stupid and slow. If they were allowed to play, they might not even be able to take the first move, and they thought to themselves.
"I'm still too young, unlike the teachers and the others who have rich experience." Wen Wuro couldn't help but sigh, but after saying this, he turned his eyes to Chen. Chen's face was still as plain as ever, and he couldn't see anything. Wen Wuro could not guess what Chen was thinking, so he turned his eyes to the field again.
Although the treasure took the lead, it did not gain any advantage. Shangquan avoided the treasure's attack again and again, and continued to make some counterattacks in the process to disrupt the treasure's rhythm.
Chen looked at the field and thought to himself: "Shangquan is about to win." Although Shangquan started to only carry out a basic counterattack, as Shangquan adapted to the treasure gun technique, more and more flaws were captured by Shangquan. After a certain counterattack by Shangquan, the treasure's body shook slightly, and its pace was completely disrupted. At this time, Shangquan finally took action. With a few bangs, Shangquan stopped his body movements and stood quietly in front of the treasure.
There was a cut opening on the monk's robe on Treasure's body, which was exactly the result of Shangquan. But Treasure did not look at the scratch on his body at this time, but instead looked at the wooden spear in surprise.
Fungoro and Izu off the court were also stunned. Not only were they, but also looked surprised on the faces of Juicy, who had always been calm, even the face of Tatsuya, had changed slightly.
The spear I originally held was broken after many fights, or it was cut off. The breaking point was quite neat, and it could be seen that it was caused by some kind of cross-cutting force. How could the wooden knife cut the wooden gun? The wooden knife could not withstand the impact caused by the slash. Even the Jue on the side knew about these. Jue had observed and heard Nagajuro talk about some sword techniques, but she had not practiced it. However, under common sense, it was difficult for the wooden knife to break the wooden gun in this situation. After all, it was just a weapon for martial arts.
A surprised expression appeared on Treasure's face at first, then turned into admiration, but his face was also a little confused. He didn't know what Shangquan had done just now, and was able to break the wooden spear in his hand in an instant. When Shangquan just slashed the wooden knife at him, he used a spear to resist it, but he didn't expect the spear to be easily broken.
Treasure asked, "Master Shangquan's swordsmanship is indeed superb. With my ability, I can't let the master truly use his full strength." After hearing this, Shangquan did not respond, neither deny nor affirmation.
Chapter completed!