Prologue: Limited Life

At the Shangyuan Festival (lantern festival), the lanterns on the long street, the fire tree and the silver flowers made Lu Qin's eyes shine as he had never seen such a magnificent scene.

"Brother, what is that?" He pointed to the dragon lantern hanging from the roof of the stall to invite guests. It was shiny like glass.

"That's also a flashlight"

Lu Ziqu asked him to sit on his shoulders to see more clearly. The dragon was exquisite and exceptional. It was powerful and amazing. It was delicately carved and the dragon claw was strong, especially the fire dragon. It must have been done by the hands of an expert! If this lantern was hung on the door of the house, no monster and demon would dare to commit misdeeds or crimes, maintaining a whole year of peace and harmony.

"Awesome! Bro, buy this! Buy this!" Lu Qing hit his brother's head and the syrup from the candied pumpkin stained him a little. Lu Ziqu only felt clingy for a while, but he just smiled at him and let him do whatever he wanted.

"How many people would have to carry it?" Lu Ziqu smiled and shook his head. Lu Qing was still a child and naturally wanted to see something new.

“Brother and I are enough! You carry your head, I carry the tail and I will scare daddy again!"

"That dragon's stomach will be crawling on the ground and when we return home it will have turned into a gray dragon, Master will really be surprised"

Lu Ziqu agreed to buy him another flashlight. Being closer to the peddler, he thought about the existence of such a large dragon lantern and its cost. He really found something strange about that flashlight, because it had a pair of flaming eyes, instead of just red ones.

Who would notice that detail?

"Is this okay?" He took a flashlight and held it out to the boy who was pawing happily above his head. He told her that, although it was small, it was also exquisitely made. It still glowed from the golden paint, which was comparable to the dragon on top. Actually, it was the best option.

"Alright!"

Seeing that Lu Qing looked excited, he didn't worry, so he paid the price of three coins.

"Here, light the fire for you, be careful"

Turning it on, Lu Qing still wanted to stay on his shoulders. So he stuck closer to his older brother. How could he not spoil this younger brother?

"I want to play! Brother take me to play!"

"Do you want to play?" he asked raising his head.

Lu Qing was a child. He said yes, but was immediately distracted by the excitement in the distance. He shouted to ask Lu Ziqu to walk there. Lu Ziqu squinted and saw several fires flying in the air.

“What's there, brother! What a view!"

Fireworks.

He thought that the master and wife would be worried since he had gone there as a quick visit with Lu Qing.

The two walked slowly while maintaining that posture. There were many people at the Shangyuan Festival, it was easy to enter the market and difficult to leave. Although Lu Ziqu wanted to quickly go home, Lu Qing wanted to wait a little longer before leaving, so those thoughts were discarded.

For a moment, Lu Ziqu was kind and took him to join the group of children to play together. The remaining two coins were enough to buy some sparklers.

"Go play, brother will hold the lantern for you, and after playing home, master and mistress are waiting for us to eat"

"I know!"

Lu Qing grabbed the sparklers and played “fetch them” with the children. Lu Ziqu looked at the flashlight while holding it. The lantern fire in the afterglow shook suddenly, it seemed that the bigger it got the more it shook...

-.-.-.-

The fire was getting bigger and bigger, and a woman in red stood in front of Lu Yun, her eyes full of resentment.

“Lu Yun! You broke your promise, come out to see me! "

She raised her soft sword and pointed at the man holding two children out of the sea of ​​flames. The white clothes on the man's body were dark and tattered; the child in her arms shouted: “Mother” these two words passed into the ears of the woman in red, which made it incredibly hard to continue maintaining the killing intent!

"Xiaozhu, cuídalos bien"

Lu Yun handed the children to the woman behind her, and she urged her to "be careful" and hid the two children behind her back, for fear that the woman would make a move towards them.

“If you come for me, why burn the house? "You could have killed my family!"

Lu Yun was so angry that he also drew his sword towards the woman in red. The sword was reflected in the fire.

Their house supported by several beams and pillars collapsed with a crash, and they rushed to the other side for fear of becoming the soul of the house.

Until this moment, Lu Yun saw several black shadows running back and forth in the flames, their abilities were extremely flexible, and he also understood why the houses made of bricks and tiles collapsed so quickly. It must have been these shadow men who destroyed the supports first...

Wherever it would rest, it would be burned with fire right now. He looked at the woman, those dark shadows were his subordinates, how could they be allowed to see such a fragile side?

“You're lucky I only burned down your house!” The woman in red had her eyes full of tears, but she still stubbornly raised her face to prevent the tears from falling.

He looked at Lu Yun's face, looked at those eyes full of resentment, but couldn't see a trace of guilt...

How could it be different from what I expected?

Shouldn't Lu Yun apologize and explain why she abandoned him to marry someone else? If so, he was the man she loved so much, why couldn't she forgive him?

"That promise was just a temporary agreement, and you understood it too!"

Lu Yun's words sounded like thorns in his ears, and many things flashed before his eyes. She desperately became the head of the house, eliminated the traitors who were hostile towards her, and exhausted all her thoughts to go meet her husband, Jun, unexpectedly seeing him marry someone else and even have children!

How could I accept this!?

"You lie! You clearly made a date with me to get married, and I'm already available!" she roared in a heartbreaking, heartbroken voice as if she were being hurt. “I have dealt with those who oppose both. Don't worry, you will be the head of the family after you marry me. Whoever does not dare to listen to you is against my sword! “Lu Yun, Lu Yun I know you are afraid to be honest… I’m not angry, really…”

"You are crazy"

Lu Yun stared at her, his eyes filled with disgust and regret, disgust that she was such a cruel person, and regretting that he had comforted a girl who had been crying for a long time when a rabbit was injured... How could he have changed so much?

Those two words were like an invisible weapon that destroyed the only hope he had left in his heart.

"I'm crazy...ha...hahahahaha...I'm crazy! I'm crazy!"

The woman in red kept repeating those two words, talking and laughing as she spun in circles, her red sleeves dancing, leaving red marks in the air, shocking.

Lu Yun frowned and signaled the three people behind to stay away.

The woman had lost her mind and fell into a madness without a cure, no different from a person who had practiced until she went crazy.

"I'm crazy, crazy, crazy..."

Lu Yun's idea was correct. The woman in red who kept shouting "crazy" suddenly stopped, but her madness disappeared. At this moment, he no longer laughed wildly, but it was more terrifying than before. Lu Yun naturally understood that this was definitely not a good thing.

Under the gaze of Lu Yun and the other three, the woman in red raised her sword towards the man she had loved so much until now. For him, she eradicated dissidents and killed countless lives to ensure a future, for the two of them. He wasn't here to see the deep love between him and his current wife.

"Since I'm crazy, how can I stop doing something crazy?" She smiled and the rouge she had put on to please herself had long since faded away.

In the shadow of dusk, the sound of two swords fighting each other reverberated. She and he had fought the enemy many times and were very familiar with each other's movements. Although the red-robed woman was crazy, her swordsmanship was chaotic but extremely sharp, and her every move was out to kill. The soft sword was as flexible as a snake in his hand and he was able to wrap his sword around it. Lu Yun did not expect this move.

He tried with all his might to retreat, but was shaken by a burst of intense pain!

A black spot, the size of a thumb, suddenly appeared on Lu Yun's mouth. At first glance, he thought it was a mistake.

When it was shot down, it was found to be a hidden weapon, which was very delicate, because the source of the hidden weapon came from the “Duan Zuofang” hidden weapon family along the Yangtze River.

"This was originally my dowry."

Two lines of tears slid down her cheeks, as her heart broke.

“If I could marry you, this hidden weapon would be yours and you would become the owner of this unique hidden weapon “Linglong” in the entire world. By then, the entire world would respect you and you would honor me. What a pity... what a pity..."

She lowered her eyebrows, showing her face as a little girl who cried for a long time because of the rabbit's wound.

"Lu Yun, I will give you another chance, if you agree..."

"You are crazy," Lu Yun said.

She sharpened her eyes and looked at the woman who was still taking care of the children behind her. He intended to kill her, and the second Linglong dart was shot out in an instant, so fast that he couldn't see it!

"Dear!" Lu Yun roared and rushed towards his beloved with all his strength and then a sharp pain spread from his back, the laughter of the red-clothed woman, the screams of his wives and children and the sound of the fire burning, like a magical sound. , echoed for a long time on this crazy night.

-.-.-.-

Lu Ziqu saw the flames rising into the sky from a distance, with an ominous premonition in his heart, and immediately hugged Lu Qing and ran!

"Brother?"

Lu Qing was holding the candied candies, there was a little heat in the wind. When he stroked his face, he smelled bursts of scorching stench, his facial features wrinkled, and the flashlight in his hand went out.

"Brother, it smells bad"

"Brother knows."

Lu Ziqu was anxious the faster he walked.

When he arrived, there was nothing. The houses made of wood had long been devoured by fire, and those that had not burned were crackling, making people feel cold, like falling into an ice cellar.

"Why are you crossing the water?"

Lu Ziqu didn't understand what he saw, he had nothing now, but he went out to buy lanterns with his younger brother; There should be a patio here. It was their home, Lu Qing's home, but now it was a mess.

He just stood there stupidly for a moment.

Neighbors had seen the flames early and everyone brought water to put it out, but it was too late. A few buckets of water couldn't put out the flare. When the fire weakened, all the people were able to enter the house to check, and they couldn't bear to look directly at the few corpses lying on the ground, because they had all been favored by the Lu family. This situation was really cruel.

“Ah! The big one and the little one are here!" A woman hurriedly shouted inside when they found them.

The charred corpse on the ground could vaguely tell that it was Master Lu and his wife, but the heights of the children were almost the same and no one dared to identify them. They didn't know which boy had gone with Lu Ziqu, but when he returned with Lu Qing they confirmed who they were.

"What's going on? They were fine before they left, before they left!" Lu Ziqu asked in disbelief.

"We do not know!"

The woman said that it was cold today and the doors and windows of all the houses were closed. He didn't know which of his children saw the flames shooting up before realizing they had gone through the water. The crowd arrived too late to save the people. Lu Ziqu felt his nose hurt, biting his lower lip and holding back the urge to cry.

Lu Qing looked to the side and couldn't bear it, so he pulled his sleeves.

"Brother, shall we go find the parents?" This request from the boy made him wake up.

Yes, Lu Qing was still so young, at an age where he needed someone to take care of him, how could he let despair crush him? He immediately raised his spirits, asked the woman, and plucked up the courage to go in.

Many people saw the two of them and cheered them on with hugs.

Young Lu was ignorant and hugged them one by one. Such naive actions made people feel distressed. Lu Ziqu heard many people whispering about where they were going next. Several enthusiastic and kind-hearted people said that they would adopt them, but Lu Ziqu secretly vowed not to do this.

This went against Lu Yun's teachings.If I followed his teachings, wouldn't it bring peace to my teacher's heart?

After being baptized by fire, he could no longer recognize that it was a courtyard in front of him. He and his younger brothers and sisters always played and practiced martial arts here. He also helped his mother dry clothes, spread radishes, and sometimes accompanied her to look at the stars and listen to her stories of youth.

He told stories about wandering around the rivers and lakes when he was little, until his mother would go out and call someone to rest...

The memorial tablet was now mixed with those beams and pillars, and there was no difference between them. Only the censer was barely noticeable, but an incense stick could not be inserted. The left and right warehouses and barns were not there at all.

Even houses can be destroyed by such a fire. How can rice and vegetables escape? Thinking of this, he picked up Lu Qing and walked in, remembering that before he came out, the teacher and the two younger brothers and sisters were guessing lantern riddles in the room. Before leaving, he was told to return early, or all the lantern riddles would be guessed. There would be no more fun... lifting his foot and stepping down, every step seemed so difficult, if it weren't for Lu Qing sobbing in his arms, reminding him that there was a child who needs his care, he can't just fall like this, maybe he wouldn't be able to. pass this atrium, which has less than fifty steps.

They had not seen the four bodies lying on the ground.

"Ah! ah!"

Lu Ziqu couldn't describe what he saw.

He looked desperately at the corpse between the bricks and the woods and for a moment he didn't have the guts to reach out his hand.

"Why are my parents lying on the ground?"

The person who was still drowning in pain choked. He looked at the little brother who still didn't understand the tragedy. The anguish and pain were born spontaneously. The little brother was just over two years old.

Why did my parents disappear overnight...?

"¡Uh... uh!"

Lu Qing struggled to get out of his arms, Lu Ziqu had to let him go, he jumped to the side of his father and mother to shake them both. He kept crying: "Father, Mother, don't sleep, let's go back to bed."

Fierce pain and sorrow rushed to the tip of her nose and her tears were uncontrollable. The fall forced him to kneel on the ground with his knees bent.

He, Lu Ziqu, was orphaned for the second time.

He, who was once displaced, naturally understood the value of his family, but he was more worried about Lu Qing than himself. This child was so small and needed parents so much, but he met the same fate as him and was destined to be forced.

Sensitive, forced to give in, look aside, and even learn to be indifferent and hopeless...

"No," Lu Ziqu said to himself. The palm of his hand pressed a piece of gravel and the sharp part cut the skin and oozed blood. The sharp pain regained his senses and cleared his eyes, allowing him to see something dark red hidden in the brick remains. Hesitantly opening the bricks, he saw that the dark red one was actually a hairpin. The fork body was broken and could not be recovered and the fork head could not withstand the impact and burst into many bright colors.

Lu Ziqu held it. The broken peony had him in a trance, it seemed...

"The teacher never used a hairpin..."

So whose hairpin would this be?

At this moment, the sky was rumbling and the big raindrops completely extinguished the fire on the door, but there was an internal flame in Lu Ziqu.

His chest lit up and no matter how many torrential rains there were, he couldn't put it out. He silently put the hairpin into his pocket and then hugged Lu Qing.

The result of enduring the scream was that his shoulders trembled.

Lu Qing was cold, so he hugged him tightly with his backhand and even said half smiling:

"Brother is not cold, is not cold, Qingqing hugs you, warm!"

In fact, it was hot... Lu Ziqu felt that his chest was hot, all over his body the flames were burning all the time, slowly forming and growing in places where they were not visible to the naked eye, almost burning him to death...

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