Chapter 84: Swordsman Carrying a Head

"You carry the pole, I lead the horse, welcoming the sunrise, sending off the sunset glow..."

"Trampling the bumps~ into a great road, fighting through hardships~ and setting off again..."

"Setting off~ again!"

The wind was clear and the sun was beautiful, with birds singing and flowers fragrant.

The nearby jungle was orderly in its chaos; natural competition formed clever creation within cruelty, making it impossible for other large trees to grow around big trees, only some short trees and vines.

Between the big trees, there were patches of gaps looking toward the sky.

Seeing Chu Tianshu strolled through the jungle, humming a song, and found a small path.

He stood on the path and looked at both ends. One end of the road stretched into the lush mountains, with no end in sight.

Looking at the other end, it seemed to be a scene of green mountains stretching across, with clouds halfway up the mountain.

However, at the foot of the big mountain over there, there seemed to be the outline of a city.

It looked like an ancient city, without the style of a modern metropolis.

However, just based on this point, it was impossible to determine what era the world he traveled to this time was similar to.

After all, even in his hometown, the world is vast, and there are some places that still retain the style of ancient cities.

After the Nie Longding incident, Seeing Chu Tianshu flew back to the mainland on the ninth day, had a big meal in the town of his hometown.

Tasting those most familiar flavors, he went back to bathe and rest, changed his clothes, sent a message to his great-grandfather and the others saying he was going out to travel, and only then started the travel.

Now he was refreshed, wearing a blue shirt with a black casual coat over it, long pants, and sneakers, feeling light and easy.

The Three-Seven Divine Sword, flexible like a tape measure, was wrapped around his left wrist, like a spiral-patterned wrist guard.

The wood grain was antique, mostly covered by his sleeves.

Since he saw an ancient city in that direction, Seeing Chu Tianshu walked along the small path.

The journey was long, and he walked leisurely, as if out for an excursion, continuing to hum the tune of "Dare to Ask Where the Road Is."

Actually, he didn't quite remember the full lyrics of this song.

Just humming those few most familiar lines over and over, he didn't feel bored.

However, as he walked, he found the sky darkening, and the damp, cool smell in the wind became heavier.

"It's going to rain."

Seeing Chu Tianshu looked left and right, quickened his pace, ran to a banana tree by the road, and pulled off a large leaf.

He blocked the rain with the banana leaf, and before long, a light drizzle fell on the jungle path.

There was an earth temple a few miles away.

Seeing Chu Tianshu held his left hand like a sword, silently recited a "Lin" character, and quickened his pace.

Most of the rain falling on his head was blocked by the banana leaf, and the rain threads coming toward him were invisibly deflected by the "Lin" character seal.

Just a small application, and he didn't need to get this coat he quite liked wet.

However, when he approached the earth temple, he found that there seemed to be people inside already.

The ancient temple had no door, with bamboo-reinforced earth walls and a grass roof. What was worshipped in the temple seemed to be a standing Buddhist statue.

There were two groups of people in the temple, all in ancient attire.

A man was hiding in the corner, closing his eyes to rest, his hair tied up with a hemp rope, bearded and unkempt, his gray clothes stained with quite a bit of dirt, but revealing a feeling of being not easy to mess with.

Because he had thin ropes binding his sleeves at his wrists, a cowhide belt tied around his waist, and he was holding a knife in his arms.

The other group of people consisted of three, looking like familiar peddlers.

The goods in the two large bamboo baskets were trivial and heavy; tiger-head shoes, small jewelry, and rattles were all there.

On one of the bamboo baskets, there was also a large bundle, leaning against a straw stack of bamboo poles filled with candied haws.

These three were one old and two young. The two young ones looked under twenty, their appearance and attire were three-tenths similar, so they should be relatives.

The old man was pressing his palms together in prayer toward the Buddha statue.

"Guanyin Bodhisattva bless us, may our business trip be smooth."

Seeing Chu Tianshu couldn't help but look at the earthen Buddha statue again.

Unlike the common gentle female Guanyin statue.

The Guanyin statue in this temple looked like an ascetic monk in attire, and like Shakyamuni Buddha in the head.

Seeing Chu Tianshu really didn't think it was a Guanyin temple at first.

The two young peddlers were squatting by the bamboo baskets, gnawing on cakes, curiously looking at Seeing Chu Tianshu.

After Seeing Chu Tianshu entered, he threw the banana leaf outside the temple and smiled at them.

"This gentleman, your clothes look very rare."

The younger one felt Seeing Chu Tianshu's friendliness and couldn't help but say, "What style is this? It looks really spirited."

Their accents were a bit subtle, but it was already very lucky to be able to understand them.

Seeing Chu Tianshu smiled: "Made it myself."

"Made it yourself?"

The little peddler said enviously, "Gentleman, your hands are really skillful. I also want to alter my clothes myself, but I just don't dare to use the scissors."

The old peddler heard their conversation and hurriedly turned around, glaring at the little peddler.

"It would be good if you could just make the candied haws clear. You've been resting for half an hour, why are you still squatting? Stand up and walk around. When the rain stops later, we'll continue on our way."

Although his back was old and his voice was hoarse, looking at his face, he was only forty or fifty years old.

"This kid is rude, gentleman, don't take offense."

The old peddler walked up and performed a salute.

Seeing Chu Tianshu looked at his appearance and suddenly thought that this seemed to be a Tang Dynasty etiquette, so he returned the salute by imitating him.

"It's okay, it's fate to hide from the rain together, just chatting."

The old peddler smiled: "Listening to the gentleman's accent, did you just arrive in Nanzhao?"

Seeing Chu Tianshu nodded: "I study medicine, left my master's school to travel around, increase my knowledge, and I really haven't been here long."

The old peddler looked at him with respect: "So you are a physician."

"In the past, physicians of the Great Tang all worshipped the Medicine King, Sun the Old Immortal, and basically dressed as Daoist priests."

The old peddler sighed, "I didn't expect that now, there are still physicians like you, gentleman, who can leave the school so young, and the attire is also different."

"To tell you the truth, gentleman, this old man came to Nanzhao with my parents when I was young. Although I miss the Great Tang in my heart, I haven't been back for many years. I heard that the Great Tang is doing well again now, can you tell us about it?"

Seeing Chu Tianshu chuckled.

Whenever he didn't know what to say, he would chuckle first.

He originally wanted to find local residents to inquire about news, but now, the local residents were asking him for news instead.

"The Great Tang, it's just like that."

Seeing Chu Tianshu quickly changed the subject, "What about Nanzhao? Has it been peaceful in recent years?"

The old peddler smiled: "In the past, the Tibetan people were building castles everywhere here, looting good things for their enjoyment, and also conscripting labor. The monarch also wanted to raise a large army to attack Shuzhou, which was really troublesome."

"But since the monarch was defeated by the Tang Emperor's army ten years ago, Nanzhao seems to have fallen out with Tubo and expelled many Tubo people."

"Haha, in these years, our Nanzhao people have lived better than before."

Seeing Chu Tianshu listened with a strange expression.

The old peddler's tone seemed to respect the Nanzhao monarch quite a bit, but he also felt quite happy that the Nanzhao monarch was beaten by the Tang Emperor.

Identifying as a Nanzhao person, yet also identifying as a Tang person?

"Hmm."

Seeing Chu Tianshu deliberated, "Since the old man is a citizen of Nanzhao, don't you feel angry that the Nanzhao army was defeated by the Tang army?"

"What's there to be angry about?"

The old peddler was a bit puzzled, "Nanzhao has also defeated the imperial court's army before. They have always been fighting back and forth like this."

"Just like in the past, two great generals of An and Shi led a large group of generals to rebel. At first, they fought the Emperor, and later they were fought by the Emperor. It's all very normal."

The old peddler smiled, "Anyway, now, Nanzhao is quite good."

Seeing Chu Tianshu suddenly understood the logic of this old peddler.

In this old peddler's heart, the Nanzhao state is not a foreign country at all; the Nanzhao monarch is just like a powerful regional warlord.

So he can naturally think that he is both a Nanzhao person and a Tang person.

Just like people from Lingnan, they will also feel that they are both Lingnan people and Tang people.

In fact, Nanzhao originally had dozens of large and small ethnic groups, with six Zhao standing side by side.

The predecessor of Nanzhao was Mengshe Zhao, whose first monarch paid homage to Emperor Gaozong and was enfeoffed as the Prefect of Weizhou.

Later, among the six Zhao, five Zhao often relied on Tubo and invaded the Tang people.

Only Mengshe Zhao always relied on the Great Tang, so during the Kaiyuan period, it received support from the Tang court, sent officials to help, annexed the other five Zhao, and established the Nanzhao state.

This Nanzhao monarch who unified the six Zhao was enfeoffed as the Duke of Yue. At that time, there were already many Tang people living in Nanzhao.

By the Tianbao period, the Nanzhao monarch Geluofeng was extorted heavily by a Tang prefect, started a war, defeated the Tang army repeatedly, allied with Tibet, called each other brothers, and took advantage of the An-Shi Rebellion to expand Nanzhao's territory.

In this process, a large number of craftsmen and commoners were looted back to Nanzhao to fill the population.

After Geluofeng died, because his son died early, his grandson "Yimouxun" succeeded him, who is the current Nanzhao monarch.

Yimouxun and Tibet launched a coalition army to attack the Great Tang, were repeatedly defeated by the Tang army, and suffered heavy losses.

The Eastern Barbarians, who also relied on Tubo, were suppressed and subdued by the Tang generals and all surrendered to the Great Tang.

Tubo became suspicious, suspecting that Nanzhao was also going to surrender to the Great Tang.

Yimouxun went with the flow, fell out with Tibet, and showed goodwill to the Great Tang.

All these things were too familiar to the Tang people living in Nanzhao after the An-Shi Rebellion.

All of Yimouxun's actions were typical of a warlord, and even the commoners under his rule were no different from the subjects under other Tang rule. Everyone still spoke their hometown language and used their hometown characters.

As for Yimouxun himself being a Bai person, that's even less worth mentioning.

Among the Tang warlords, there were people of all ethnic groups.

Even if people often led troops to rebel, wanted to expand their territory, looted populations, and occasionally wanted to rush to Chang'an to capture the Tang Emperor, they still considered themselves Tang people, which did not conflict.

"In short, is Nanzhao still quite peaceful now?"

Seeing Chu Tianshu smiled, "That's good. Although we physicians say we save the dying and heal the wounded, we don't like to see death and injury too much."

"Besides, walking around and practicing medicine in a peaceful place, one's own safety is also relatively guaranteed."

He heard footsteps approaching on the small path outside the temple again, so he turned his head and took a look.

The old peddler also followed his gaze, suddenly his face turned pale, and he screamed.

The two young peddlers hurriedly rushed forward to support the old man: "What's wrong?"

They also looked over there, and with a "swish," their faces turned pale.

Seeing Chu Tianshu frowned and stared at the figure.

The person was walking on the road step by step, holding a knife in his right hand and carrying a human head in his left hand.

Holding these two things, the person's face was not ferocious.

Because he had no face; the area above his neck was empty, with only blood still rendering on his wet clothes.

Cloudy sky, light rain.

A headless person walking.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 85 =====