Law of the Devil

Exactly thirty-five years ago, in the spring of nine hundred and twenty-five years in the Roland Empire.

Perhaps many people have already forgotten what happened in the spring of this year. In the hearts of most people, the only thing worth remembering about this spring more than 30 years ago is that this year's spring seems to have come very late.

The early cold in early spring swept across the entire central part of the mainland. In order to prevent the soldiers from being frozen during the spring drills, the military command made a special batch of thick military uniforms. After busy work, they finally sent them to various places before the spring drills. among the army.

However, this year's spring is not just that simple. For the people in the imperial capital, many things happened this spring that later affected the entire continent.

In the spring of this year, His Majesty the Emperor Augustine VI officially established his only son, the eldest prince Yawen, as Crown Prince. Also this spring, the patriarch of the Rollins family died of illness. Raymond of the Rollins family inherited the title of Earl and became the new Earl of Rollins, inheriting the fertile land of the Rollins Plain.

Among the young nobles of the empire, this twenty-year-old Raymond was undoubtedly a rising star. His talent, his outstanding martial arts, and his military genius convinced all those who looked up to him to believe that another outstanding patriarch had emerged from the Luo Lin family, a family of martial arts.

At this time, the young Earl Raymond's best friend is the eldest prince Yawen, who has just been established as the crown prince. One is a young and promising general of the future empire, and the other is the future emperor of the empire. The personal friendship between the two makes everyone optimistic about the future of the Luo Lin family... It is clear that they are a generation of good generals who herald the future. And at this time, who would have thought that one day in the future, the eldest prince who was considered to be the future emperor would be defeated and die? And this patriarch of the Luo Lin family with a limitless future will be ruined and lose his position?

At this time, they are young, full of hope, and proud of themselves.

Also in his golden age, and the patriarch of the Liszt family. He was a well-known handsome man in the imperial capital. He was knowledgeable, intelligent and funny. In just one year after he came to the imperial capital, he conquered the entire aristocratic circle of the imperial capital with his personal charm. From music, flowers, art, astronomy, divination, history, dance... It seems that there is nothing that this Mr. Liszt does not know, and his handsome face like a sun god and his intoxicating smile make countless Aristocratic girls and ladies fell in love with it.

Even His Majesty the Emperor Augustine VI granted this Mr. Lister a knighthood. Although the title of jazz is a low-level title that cannot be hereditary, the title of title conferred by His Majesty the Emperor has doubled Mr. Liszt's value in the imperial capital.

At the same time, this Mr. Liszt also has a net worth of hundreds of millions. As a well-known wealthy family in the mainland, his background is enviable: young and rich, talented, making him the lover of countless girls.

What is even more memorable is that in the spring of this year, the blue sea scholar in the imperial capital finally soared into the sky!

In everyone's memory, about a few years ago, a middle-aged man named Lan Hai came to the imperial capital. No one knew where this old guy came from. He has always been dressed in plain cotton robes, and his long hair is casually loose. He chooses to live in the south of the city, where the common people focus. On the long street where he lives, everyone, every day, sees I saw this Mr. Lan Hai smiling and walking on the street.

No matter who you are, even if you are just the owner of a bakery or a driver of a carriage, as long as you greet him, he will smile and nod to you.

In the eyes of these common people, this Mr. Lan Hai is knowledgeable and talented! Because since he came here, he has solved many difficult problems for everyone many times.

If you are sick and look down on doctors, then you can ask Mr. Lan Hai for help. He will find you some herbs that even professional doctors can't understand, and he will soon heal your injuries.

At the beginning, people thought that Mr. Lan Hai was a doctor.

Later, when the owner of a poorly managed grocery store next door decided to sell his property and return to his hometown, but the accounts accumulated over the years could not be calculated clearly. The accounts are all settled.

At this time, people thought that Mr. Lan Hai was an outstanding accountant.

Later, a fur businessman spread all the fur goods in the yard to expose them to the sun, but Mr. Lan Hai ran to tell him that the next month would be rainy, and persuaded him to transport all the goods that were afraid of humidity out of the imperial capital. go. At that time, the sun was scorching hot, and it was the hottest season of the year. No one listened to Mr. Lan Hai's advice.

As a result, as Mr. Lan Hai said, two days later, the torrential rain poured down. The continuous month of torrential rain caused many breaches in the Lancang Canal, and the fur merchant suffered heavy losses as a result.

Afterwards, everyone thought that Mr. Lan Hai might be a fortune teller.

Later, a tailor wanted to make a new robe for a nobleman, but because he accidentally lost the fabric given to him by the nobleman, he approached Mr. Lan Hai for help. However, Mr. Lan Hai only tore down a curtain randomly, and used that curtain to make a new robe in one afternoon—and no one who saw that robe did not praise the beautiful style of the dress.

At this time, people started to be surprised... What else is this Mr. Lan Hai not able to do?

His fame began to spread.

A man who worked as a gardener in a nobleman's house accidentally killed some of the nobleman's favorite potted flowers. He asked Mr. Lan Hai for help. And after Mr. Lan Hai taught him a few methods, those pots of dead flowers and plants were miraculously revived.

A livestock trader was deceived by his opponent and bought a thousand bad horses at a high price. When facing a loss, he turned to Mr. Lan Hai for help. As a result, Mr. Lan Hai accompanied him to look at the horses, picked out two pregnant mares, and then gave the businessman some advice.

As a result, those two pregnant mares actually gave birth to two of the finest horses! And two years later, those two horses were trained to be good horses that can travel thousands of miles a day, and the businessman earned back all his capital just by selling the two horses.

The most miraculous thing is that one night, a thief broke into Mr. Lan Hai's house... I don't know what happened. After dawn, the thief had changed into a servant's attire and stayed with Mr. Lan Hai ever since. Beside him, he became his faithful servant.

Lan Hai's reputation began to spread in the imperial capital. Some civilians around began to ask Mr. Lan Hai to educate their children.

Three years after Mr. Lan Hai came to the imperial capital, he has become a well-known scholar. Although he lives in a common area, eats ordinary bread, does not have a carriage, lives in a simple small yard, and even greets a groom politely.

However, everyone respects this gentleman. Of course—some scholars in the imperial capital don't think so. They think that the existence of Lan Hai is an infringement of their own identity.

As a scholar, how can he be in a dirty civilian area? I heard that Lan Hai sometimes doesn't even wear shoes when he goes out... This is so rude!

So people began to come to find trouble, and challenged Mr. Lan Hai in the name of discussing knowledge... But without exception, every scholar who came to make trouble would leave with a face of shame in the end. And Lan Hai still carries a chair every day and sits under the locust tree in the yard basking in the sun.

His fame began to spread to the ears of some nobles. At the beginning, these nobles thought that Lan Hai was just a traditional scholar... just like those "scholars" who needed to please themselves nobles, brag and flatter them, and help themselves to be arty.

As a result, Lan Hai rejected almost all "invitations".

This move made him a "hick who doesn't know how to praise" in the hearts of many nobles.

Unfortunately, it was in the spring of the nine hundred and twenty-five year of the empire. In the academic conference of scholars held every three years, unexpectedly, this Mr. Lan Hai, who is indifferent to fame and fortune, also participated.

This is a gathering of almost all the most famous scholars in the imperial capital, and it is also the best opportunity for scholars to spread their fame and enhance their status. All the erudite scholars in the empire will promote their theories and demonstrate their erudition at this conference. According to the historical tradition, anyone who can perform well at this triennial conference will often be hired as a court scholar!

But this time, everyone's demeanor was covered by the blue ocean.

Among a large group of scholars dressed in Chinese clothes, Lan Hai, wearing plain robes and bare feet, is so different. Under many mocking eyes, Lan Hai asked those famous scholars three questions:

The first question: When a person is born as a baby, he is not ashamed of being naked, but why when he grows up, he puts on thick clothes and feels ashamed of being naked?

The second question: he asked, for wild animals, all life is: mating, fighting, hunting. The same is true in human life: mating, fighting, hunting. So, what is the difference between man and beast?

The third question is even more interesting. He invited one of the most famous scholars in the imperial capital at that time. Then he asked the scholar to hold a bouquet of blooming flowers in his hand, while he ignored everyone's surprised eyes and held a piece of cow dung in his hand, and then he asked with a smile: May I ask what you were thinking when you saw me? And what was I thinking when I saw him?

This strange move shocked everyone.

At the conference that gathered so many well-known scholars who could be said to be the most famous in the entire empire, no one could fully answer Lan Hai's three questions.

After a heated discussion, Lan Hai easily announced his answer:

The first question: He told everyone that "when you are wearing clothes now, it is not your body that is concealed, it is the shame in your heart that is concealed, and babies have no shame."

The second question: No one in the audience could accurately answer the difference between humans and beasts. And Lan Hai told everyone easily: The biggest difference is that we will "think" about this issue here, while the beast will not.

And the third question is even more interesting. With cow dung in his hand, he looked at the big scholar with a flower in his hand, and asked him what he saw when he looked at himself. The university scholar said to Lan Hai in a mocking tone, "What I saw was bullshit." Lan Hai was not angry at all, but told the other party very elegantly, "What I see are the flowers in your hand."

Just when the university student thought that Lan Hai was subduing himself in disguise, Lan Hai's next words left him completely speechless.

"You see cow dung in your eyes because you think cow dung in your heart. I see flowers in your eyes because I think flowers in your heart... Sir, that's what we were before the difference."

Lan Hai cleverly used these three questions to give these hypocritical scholars the greatest irony. The first question satirized the shame of these guys; the second question satirized their inability to think... and the third question satirized their dirty hearts.

After finishing all the words, Lan Hai left with a smile.

Just after this day, Lan Hai's name was completely established in the imperial capital. He alone silenced hundreds of scholars, and many people left the imperial capital in shame afterwards.

On this evening in the spring of the 925th year of the Empire, Lan Hai sat under the big locust tree with a cup of tea in his hand, and the thief servant who was taken in by him stood quietly behind him.

And at this time, a boy who was only ten years old stood outside the door of the small courtyard where Lan Hai lived, and he had stood there for a whole afternoon.

This young man was tall and thin, with a very handsome appearance. From the clothes on his body, he seemed to be born in a poor family. It's just that he was standing there, but there was a different look in his eyes, as if there was a kind of pride in his bones.

He waited from noon until the afternoon, and he didn't walk in until the evening when the door of the small courtyard where Lan Hai lived opened.

"Mr. Lan Hai." He just stood at the door, his delicate face full of determination: "I'm here to ask you to accept me as an apprentice."

Lan Hai smiled, he didn't get up, he was still sitting there with a stick of tea in his hand, he noticed that the shoes on the young child's feet were worn out, he noticed the dust on the child's face, he noticed the child's thin body.

"Are you from far away?"

"...Northwest." The boy replied: "I walked for a month, all the way to the imperial capital. I heard your name three days ago. I think you can relieve the confusion in my heart."

"What do you want from me?" Lan Hai became interested in this child.

"Answer." The boy's voice was very low: "Sir, I heard people say that you are the smartest and most knowledgeable person in the imperial capital. I am from the Northwest, and my family lives in the Desa Province. My great-great-grandfather was once a nobleman. , my grandfather was an officer and my father became a blacksmith in the army. He told me that the army would protect us. But my sister died three years ago and my house was disguised by aliens The horse thieves visited her, and those robbers of other races insulted her, cut off her head and hung it on the fence in the yard. My mother hid me in the cellar while listening to the robbers insulting my sister, I heard my sister crying, but my mother covered my mouth, and we didn't go out. After the robber left, my mother cried for three days and three nights, and then died of illness. My father was killed by a horse thief a year ago. All I have is a sword and five copper horns, and a word...'survive'. Dear sir, there are many people like me in the Northwest Desa Province. I don't know , Is this fate dictated by a benevolent god? Could it be that our tragic fate cannot be changed?"

The boy's voice was hoarse, and there seemed to be something in his eyes that even Lan Hai couldn't bear to look directly at.

He saw a cloth bag behind the boy, which seemed to be the outline of a sword.

After a long time, Lan Hai sighed. He looked at the boy with an apologetic face: "Son, I'm sorry, I can't answer your question."

A trace of deep disappointment flashed across the young boy's childish and determined face. He was about to turn around and leave, but Lan Hai suddenly stopped him: "Wait."

The boy stopped. Lan Hai stood up from the chair and walked to the boy. He looked into the boy's eyes and said in a low voice: "There are some things that we can't figure out the answer to...but not everything We must have the answer before we can do it... Many times, we will do it first and then see the result. We can do it first, even if this attempt fails, then at least we can know that this method is It doesn’t work—this is also a kind of gain. If we just think about it blindly and don’t do it, then you may wait for your whole life to think about it, and there will be no results.”

After a pause, he said slowly, "I can't tell you the answer, but I can help you try... My child, what do you want to learn?"

"Wu!" The boy's answer was firm.

Lan Hai smiled: "Wu? You should know that I am a scholar."

The boy was silent, he seemed a little embarrassed and a little disappointed. But Lan Hai stared at the boy carefully for a while, and then said softly, "Come with me."

Saying that, Lan Hai seemed to be about to turn around and walk in, but asked again: "I almost forgot... what's your name?"

"Rodriguez." The boy replied, "You can also call me Rodney."

"Okay, Rodriguez." Lan Hai said the name softly, and then he smiled: "You are the first disciple I accept...and, I think if there are no accidents, you are the only one under my disciples. A disciple of learning martial arts."

;

Rodriguez followed the blue ocean into the house. There is also a door in the house, which is a small room.

"This door is never locked." Lan Hai smiled and said, "However, I think you may be the only one who goes in besides me."

The small room inside is not as narrow as it looks from the outside. Lan Hai is obviously a person who knows how to make full use of space, and what surprised Rodriguez even more is that there is actually a curtain hanging in the room, and on the curtain, those strange words and patterns... Rodriguez Si actually recognized it.

"This is..." The boy's face suddenly became very strange: "Is this the text of those prairie barbarians?"

"Yes." Lan Hai stood in front of the boy and replied calmly.

"Why do you have such a thing here?"

"Because..." Lan Hai said with a smile: "Because I am one of the 'prairie barbarians' you mentioned... If you don't mind. Actually, I am not from Roland Continent. I was born in the grassland. I'm a prairie man."

Rodriguez's face suddenly changed, and he couldn't help but took two steps back, looking at Lan Hai carefully.

Lan Hai's eyes are blue, and he can't see the slightest ancestry of the prairie race, and his elegant temperament is not as tough as a prairie man.

"Do you think it's strange?" Lan Hai smiled: "Perhaps in your heart, the so-called prairie people are those tough guys who run on horses? But, how much do people really know about the prairie?"

As Lan Hai said, he gently lifted the cloth curtain, revealing a long box behind it.

"I was born in the grassland, but not those tribes and herdsmen. At the northern end of that grassland, there is a big snow mountain, the highest peak of that snow mountain. It is said that standing on it, you can directly touch the sky with your hands. On top of the snow mountain, It is the sacred place in the hearts of all grassland peoples, because that place is the cradle of all shamans. Every shaman on the grassland is born in the Daxue Mountain... and the people on the Daxue Mountain are the same as the races on the grassland. It's different. Our appearance is very similar to the people of the Roland Empire." Lan Hai said, with a smile on his face: "I was born on a snow-capped mountain, and it's not as wild as you imagined. In fact ...On the Great Snow Mountain, there is a ruins of a civilization that is completely different from the Roland Continent, and we people in the Great Snow Mountain claim to be the remnants of that lost civilization."

Rodriguez was a little surprised: "You..."

"Don't need this expression." Lan Hai smiled lightly: "Since I left Daxue Mountain, I am no longer a person there. Because I have seen it clearly a long time ago... there is a group of people on that mountain. Crazy people... Or, eleven remaining crazy races. I left that mountain and came here just because I don't want to go crazy with those people."

After finishing speaking, Lan Hai gently opened the box, and inside was a slender sword!

After opening the box, a gust of cold air from inside the box immediately enveloped the entire room! Shocked by the cold air, the young Rodriguez couldn't help trembling slightly. The cold light like a cold moon reflected on his young face, with streaks of blue, strange circular arcs, showing Now above the sword edge, the sword edge seems to be shrouded in a layer of transparent crystal ice edge, but it can be seen...

It is very sharp!

"The name of this sword is 'Beauty under the Moon'." Lan Hai sighed softly: "Although I don't think you are suitable for using this sword, but... I still lend it to you temporarily. Because of this Although the handle sword is powerful, but in the future when your martial arts reaches a certain level, it will become a shackle to restrain you. Because this sword does not belong to you, although it can bring you a certain improvement, But one day, you will find that you cannot exert its true power. At that time, it will become your bondage."

After a pause, Lan Hai asked: "Didn't your father leave you with a sword? You can put that sword in this box. When one day in the future, this beauty under the moon will no longer be able to give you When you grow up and become your shackles, you can come here and take out the long sword that you kept here, your father's relic. At that time, I will teach you how to cultivate a truly own sword A sword, a sword that can match your soul with the sword."

Rodriguez carefully stared at the beauty under the moon in the box, even though he was still young, he could still feel the magic and extraordinaryness of this sword... The young man suddenly felt moved: "Sir, whose sword is it? Is it what you use?"

"It's mine." Lan Hai seemed to smile: "But now, I can no longer use it."

Rodriguez was a little surprised: "Sir... Could it be that you were once a warrior?"

A strange expression appeared on Lan Hai's face. He didn't answer Rodriguez's words immediately, but stretched out his hand and gently stroked the blade of Beauty under the Moon. His movements were soft and delicate, and he sighed softly: " Not anymore."

Then he seemed to smile: "Anyone who leaves Daxue Mountain must voluntarily give up something that belongs to him... and I stay in Daxue Mountain, which is my 'martial spirit'."

The young man was at a loss. The young Rodriguez still couldn't understand what Lan Hai said. However, with the heart of a young man, all his attention was focused on this "beauty under the moon".

It is so beautiful! Rodriguez has never seen such a beautiful sword! Its beauty seems to hide all its dangers in it. That severe chill seems to make people's souls sink into it deeply and involuntarily...

When the boy was in a daze, Lan Hai had already taken the sword out of the box, and Rodriguez quickly held it with both hands.

"Using this sword, I will teach you a martial skill... It's just that this kind of martial skill is not so easy to learn. Especially at the beginning, your progress will even be much slower than ordinary people. But once After you really cultivate into it, you will find that this kind of martial skill is infinitely powerful. Are you... willing?"

With a soft voice from the boy, he answered "I do". From then on, on the mainland, there was finally a decisive strong man!

It took a "fool" twenty-five years to go from level one to level three, but it took only five years for a "genius" to go from level three to level eight!

;

The spring of nine hundred and twenty-five years of the Roland Empire.

In the spring of this year, Prince Yawen became the Crown Prince. Everyone thought he would be the future emperor.

Raymond Rollin became the Earl of the Xindi Rollin Family. The earl's inauguration banquet was held in the new earl's mansion, and outside the hall for the banquet guests, at the back door of the earl's mansion, on a carriage, a young groom was dozing off, he tightened his clothes and muttered He said: "Damn the weather, it's still so cold at night... Sigh, is that housekeeper amazing... Hmph, I, Made, will be able to become a housekeeper one day in the future..."

And on the same night, to everyone's surprise, Mr. Liszt, a popular lover admired by countless girls, accidentally married a beautiful girl from a poor background. On this wedding night, Mr. Liszt turned to him His new wife smiled and said: "Honey, if we have a child in the future, I hope it will be a beautiful daughter... In order to commemorate our love, I hope to name her after you...Lan Liszt. "

At the same time, Augustine VI, the overjoyed emperor, had begun to turn his conquest to the northwest, and there was a huge map hanging in his bedroom. And on the corner of the northwest land, a circle was heavily drawn...

When all these things that affected the history of the future continent happened on the same night, a young man named Rodriguez picked up his swordsmanship in a hut in Lan Hai's house and started The struggle of his life.

"My child, since you are my student now, I want to tell you my real name." Lan Hai looked at the young disciple who was a little obsessed with the beauty under the moon: "Remember, my real name is ' Lan Haiyue'."

Rodriguez was taken aback: "Lan Haiyue? What a strange name."

"It's not the strangest thing." Blue Ocean Scholar smiled lightly, and then his face suddenly became serious: "I want to remind you of one thing, and I ask you to keep it firmly in mind under any circumstances!"

"What?"

"Remember a name, and you must swear to me that no matter under any circumstances, you must not confront that person head-on! Because if there are really demons in this world, then he must be the closest one!" Lan Haidi's face became extremely serious.

"Yes, teacher, please speak."

"That man, he is my younger brother, my own younger brother. But I have always felt that when the gods sent his soul to the world, he must have sent it to the wrong place... He should not have been born in my family, he should have Directly become a devil... In fact, when I left Daxue Mountain, he was already designated as the only candidate for the next Witch King!"

There was a strange look in Lan Haidi's eyes, and then he smiled wryly, "Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe it's destiny, his name just formed a strange contrast with mine."

Speaking of this, the university scholar sighed softly: "His name is... Bai Hechou!"

With this sigh, Lan Hai gently dipped his hand into the teacup in his hand, and wrote a few words that Rodriguez didn't know at all. The young Rodriguez looked at the words that looked like squares. , with a surprised expression on his face: "This is..."

"This is the writing on the Great Snow Mountain, which is different from the writing of the Roland Empire. This is how the name Bai Hechou was written. Perhaps, within the empire, I am the only person who can recognize this writing."

Although Lan Hai was knowledgeable and talented, his last sentence was ultimately wrong.

Because, thirty-five years later, a person who recognized this kind of writing appeared on the mainland.

This person, of course, is... Du Wei! .