A mouthful of strong wine entered his throat, but Luo Bu's expression remained indifferent.
Chen Changsheng, on the other hand, felt a little reluctance to part with him.
"Then … we're leaving?" he said to Luo Bu.
Luo Bu picked up the small pot of wine and shook it, indicating that he understood, but he said nothing.
Chen Changsheng was rather unhappy. He thought, even if you don't want to speak in order to maintain your demeanor, shouldn't you at least let me drink a mouthful of wine before parting?
In truth, he had been feeling rather strange these past few days. Ever since that drunken conversation by the mountain stream, Luo Bu's attitude towards him had undergone a very subtle change.
It was very clear that he was no longer very willing to speak with Chen Changsheng, let alone be intimate, but there was also no hostility. It was more like he was intentionally maintaining a distance, wanting to be a stranger.
But he was also not a complete stranger, because whether it was when he was taking medicine or when he was feeding the horses in the meadow, he would always feel that Luo Bu was watching him from afar.
This kind of watching was more like observing.
Just why was this?
Chen Changsheng shook his head and no longer continued to think about these things. He could only classify Luo Bu as a strange person and lead Nanke down the mountain path.
From start to finish, even when his and Nanke's figures had vanished into the Winter Pine Forest, Luo Bu did not turn his head.
He silently drank his wine towards the town of Mount Song. Rather than saying that he was sending off Chen Changsheng, it was more accurate to say that he was sending off himself.
When the strong wine in the pot was finally emptied, Luo Bu finally stood up and walked down the mountain.
He did not directly report to the Mount Song Army headquarters. Instead, he chose a very unremarkable wine shop and walked in.
He had the shopkeeper fill up the empty wine pot, then he sat at a table by the window, ordered a plate of fried soybeans, and looked out the window.
Three fingers fell onto the plate. Without even looking, he would accurately pick up two fried soybeans each time and place them in his mouth, slowly chewing them.
It was noon. The sunlight pierced through the thick clouds and shone on the streets of Mount Song, clearly illuminating the faces of the people.
The newly appointed Divine General of the Mount Song Army headquarters, Chen Chou, was escorted out of the main gate of the headquarters by his subordinates. He mounted his horse and began his first patrol.
Seeing his old friend's clearly much taller figure, Luo Bu chuckled and raised his wine cup in celebration, praying in his heart that he would not die early.
When dusk came, the sunlight became much dimmer. The glow of the setting sun was like a flame that burned the buildings on the street and the minds of the people.
He had already eaten three plates of fried soybeans and drank four pots of wine. Luo Bu's eyes narrowed more and more, not because he was drunk, but because he saw the person he wanted to see.
Of course, the reason why he wanted to see those people was because he did not want to see them.
These people were from his clan, and there were also some from the Wenshui Tangs, the Wu clan, and the Mutuo clan.
Other than him, no one could tell them apart from the pedestrians on the street. Naturally, no one noticed that these people had left Mount Songshan and were heading west.
Luo Bu continued to drink. He drank for a very long time, but his eyes did not show any signs of drunkenness. On the contrary, they grew brighter and brighter. After a very long time, he finally sighed and stood up. He asked for a basin of clean water from a shopkeeper and very carefully washed his face and beard clean. Then, he sang a song that no one in the north had ever heard before and left Mount Songshan to head west.
Chen Changsheng's injuries were still far from completely healed, but he could already walk normally. He had refused the Dragonhorse offered by Sloping Cliff Horse Farm, but with Nanke's help, his speed was not slow. He was many times faster than ordinary merchants. After leaving Mount Songshan, he traveled through the mountains and very quickly left the mountains behind him.
At dusk of the next day, he and Nanke arrived outside Hanqiu City.
As he walked along the official road to the city, he noticed that the trees on the side of the road were rather damaged, and the forest on his left was particularly messy. If he carefully looked, he could see many new shrubs and willows. It was obvious that they had suffered some extremely bitter damage several years ago.
He froze, then recalled that several years ago, he, Zhexiu, and many other people had passed through this forest to enter the Garden of Zhou.
At the time, a rainbow had descended from the south, tens of thousands of li away. The entrance to the Garden of Zhou had been in that seemingly real and illusory courtyard behind the forest.
At the moment, the entrance to the Garden of Zhou was on his wrist, that black stone. And the key to the Garden of Zhou was no longer at the peak of the Mount Li Sword Sect. It had already become his spiritual sense.
He thought of many scenes from several years ago.
At that time, Zhu Luo had sat in the pavilion, his long fur shawl over his shoulders, exuding an ancient aura, proud and aloof beyond compare. No one dared to approach him.
At that time, Mei Lisha had sat in the carriage, silent and indifferent, not saying a single word. He was like an old plum blossom, possessing his own aura.
Mei Lisha and Zhu Luo were both dead, but many of those people were still alive.
Chen Changsheng turned to glance at Nanke.
It was in the Garden of Zhou that he had first met Nanke. At the time, Nanke was an indifferent and callous Demon Princess. Under Black Robe's orders, she had stirred up internal strife among the human cultivators in the Garden of Zhou. At the same time, she had sought opportunities to kill Xu Yourong, Zhexiu, and Qi Jian. She was his most frightening enemy.
The current her was just a silly, ignorant little girl. She only knew to follow him, protect him, and wait for him.
"I don't know if you'll still remember these days after you wake up," he sighed as he looked at Nanke.
Nanke's hand grabbed a corner of his sleeve, her eyes still lifeless. She stared at Hanqiu City in front of them, completely unaware of what he was saying.
It was very obvious that she had already completely forgotten her experiences in the Garden of Zhou.
Seeing her like this, Chen Changsheng could not help but sigh.
On that night in the snowy mountains, she had risked her soul to save his life, so he naturally had to keep his promise. But even now, he did not know if he could cure her. And just as he had sighed with emotion, if he really did cure her, and she still remembered these days after she woke up, would she kill him?
… …
… …
The closer they got to Hanqiu City, the denser the forest on either side of the road, the more willow trees there were. This was a very good indication of the Qi of the city.
Yes, every city had its own unique Qi. The capital's Qi came from the green of the Mausoleum of Books, Luoyang's Qi came from the city walls, and Hanqiu City's Qi came from the willow trees.
In the past, Zhu Luo had loved willow trees, so there was a Myriad Willow Garden outside Hanqiu City, and ten thousand willow trees were also planted in the city.
Now, Zhu Luo had long since become a fragment of the star beneath the Mausoleum of Books, vanishing like smoke, but Hanqiu City was still the same as it had been in the past, bearing many of his marks.
From a certain perspective, Hanqiu City was surnamed Zhu. The Zhu clan and the Emotion-Severing Sect possessed supreme statuses and unimaginable strength in this city. But Chen Changsheng was not worried about encountering anything here, because there was probably no one who knew of his whereabouts. More importantly, Zhu Ye was already dead, so the Zhu clan did not have any extraordinary figures.
As expected, his and Nanke's entry into Hanqiu City went very smoothly. The soldiers at the city gate and those disciples wearing the sword robes of the Emotion-Severing Sect had clearly not yet shaken off the shock of their clan head's death. They appeared particularly vigilant, but in reality, their eyes were filled with confusion and unease about the future.
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