The next day.

In the courtyard with the words "Ruoshui" engraved on the plaque in front of the Lianhua Peak, the owner of the courtyard Zhao Bailian was destined to be an extremely busy day. For example, just around the morning when the morning was approaching, a man in a night clothes came to his courtyard.

There was a piece of blue cloth covering the man's face, which made people unable to see his appearance. Only those eyes that were as deep as an ancient well could vaguely see that he should not be the kind of death warrior or assassin who was good at hiding in the dark, but an extremely calm person. But no matter what his identity was, no matter why he was wearing this eye-catching night clothes at this moment, in front of this middle-aged man who had taken over the entire Lotus Sect at the age of 60, he could only sit upright in front of the middle-aged man who had taken over the entire Lotus Sect at the age of 60 in history.

Anyone who is familiar with Zhao Bailian knows that his aura is not strong, and even his temperament is elegant, just like a teacher in a private school.

After the man in green sat down, he said respectfully: "The master of the sect, my subordinates have learned that this Baishan Spring Hunting is very different from the past. He even took out the items to control the sect to exchange for a place to enter the Qixingdun of our sect. If my sect disciples fail again in this spring hunt, the consequences will be unimaginable."

When Zhao Bailian heard this, she locked her eyebrows and couldn't help but sigh: "It's only been fifty years now, and they can't wait to have the idea of ​​trying to get Qixingdun so impatient."

The masked man dared not respond randomly about this.

After a while, Zhao Bailian tried to chuckle at him and said, "I understand this. You have done a good job. I will make a response in the short term. You can go back first."

When the masked man heard this, he stood up and bowed to say goodbye, but when he approached the threshold, a complex look flashed in his exposed eyes. He stopped and wanted to speak but stopped. Seeing this, Zhao Bailian, who was still sitting quietly on the main seat, still said with a smile: "What's wrong? Just say something."

The masked man hesitated for a moment, and finally told the question that had been buried in his heart for more than ten years. "Actually, my subordinates have never understood that the sect leader knew that he was pushed by those old people as a scapegoat, but he still did not hesitate to bear the infamy and tried hard to grasp the last layer of fig leaf of the Lotus Sect. What is the purpose of? Besides, the Lotus Sect now is already like an old man in the twilight era, and he has no one to save. Is it really worth the sect leader doing this?"

Seeing the elegant Lotus Sect Master in front of him fell silent, the masked man sighed and continued, "We all know that you have done well enough in the Sect Master, and have paid a lot for it. In fact, you don't owe anything to the Lotus Sect."

Zhao Bailian shook her head at this and said meaningfully: "Actually... it's not enough."

The masked man sighed again when he heard this, but he stopped saying anything, but just bowed with his fists. After he walked out of the study and came outside the yard, his body flashed and disappeared from the other yard.

...

After the man left, about a quarter of an hour, another guy in the same dress as the man before broke into this Ruoshui Villa. The latter was also familiar with the road and came directly to Zhao Bailian's study.

Zhao Bailian has long been accustomed to this. Over the past decade, he has been able to maintain the position of the Lotus Sect, a sword sect in one country and two sects, from the secret help of the chess pieces he set up by himself. It can be said that they are the real pillars in this matter.

In Lingzhou, it is well known that the longest inheritance of the Lotus Sect is no longer comparable to the first sword sect of the five prefectures. The reason is that fifty years ago, something major happened in the Lotus Sect that shocked the whole world. That incident not only caused the current decline of the Lotus Sect, but also forced the sect to replace five sect leaders in a row in just 50 years. However, without exception, the five sect leaders who succeeded in the future could not prevent the Lotus Sect from continuing to decline.

The decline of the Lotus Sect has little to do with personal gain. For example, the current sect leader Zhao Bailian, after he successfully broke through to the upper three realms under tremendous pressure, he thought that he would use his own strength to reorganize the Lotus Sect, but then he found it impossible, because the decline of the Lotus Sect is not only to compete with other sword sects, which are also Baishanzu for cultivation resources, but also to control the disciples of the four sects of "spring, summer, autumn and winter" in the sect, it seems that the Supreme Elders who have long had no hope for the revival of the sect, and have become apart from each other.

Therefore, only those chess pieces arranged by Zhao Bailian personally knew that only Zhao Bailian never gave up on this Lotus Sect. However, as more and more things were lost in the Lotus Sect, they gradually realized that this sect leader who seemed to be in his forties but had actually entered his seventies was just holding on.

Compared to the previous temperament, the man is undoubtedly more decisive and has spoken very little. He took out a note from his arms and handed it to Zhao Bailian on the main seat, and said, "The information I can learn from there is in this letter. In order not to reveal my identity, I have to rush back as soon as possible. I have been watching me very closely recently, so I cannot stay with you for more."

Zhao Bailian took the letter, nodded, and replied, "You go back, put the overall situation first in everything, remember to be careful in your daily life."

The man nodded and left quietly.

Zhao Bailian opened the letter left by the other party and browsed it roughly. She found that there were not much content recorded in it. However, through the description of the chess piece in the letter later and the previous conversations with another chess piece, he found that although the information brought by the two chess pieces was different, he could still know exactly that the forces they are in now were no different from the previous few times, because they all pointed their finger at the Lotus Sect, making the Lotus Sect the target of the public once again.

However, this is not a matter of time. Since Zhao Bailian took over as the sect leader, almost every spring hunting, the Lotus Sect will lose a lot of benefits. Perhaps this is why in just fifty years, the previous sect leaders only tried to persevere for less than ten years, and they were already in a state of despair and resigned.

Zhao Bailian burned the letter to ashes with candlelight, and his face was covered with sorrow, but even so, he had already begun to think about the various response plans of Baishan Chunhunting this time, but in the end, he seemed to be unable to come up with any good solutions, so he showed a very rare look of anger, punched the desk, making a loud bang.

Zhao Bailian said hatefully: "If I could give me another ten years... no, even if it was only five years, I would have been able to do much more than now."

...

When Xu Yan arrived at Ruoshui Villa, it was almost three minutes later. As soon as he walked into the gate, he saw his master Zhao Bailian in the Guanlan Pavilion in the yard. At the same time, in addition to his master, there was also a middle-aged man sitting in the Guanlan Pavilion.

The middle-aged man wore a blue coarse cloth sweatshirt that is very common in the market farmhouses, and his feet were wearing a pair of simple straw sandals that were very suitable for hiking and walking. He looked simple, and his dark and square old face always had a smile on his face no matter where he was, which made him look more approachable.

Xu Yan walked into Guanlan Pavilion along the stone path paved on the lawn, and then he found that next to the drum-bearing stone bench where the man was sitting, there was a bamboo basket he had seen many times. He immediately realized that it was time for this man named Lao Qiao to go up the mountain to deliver new tea every year.

Xu Yan walked into the pavilion, first bowed to Zhao Bailian, then turned around and bowed to Lao Qiao and said, "Uncle Qiao is here this year a few days ago than in previous years."

Old Qiao smiled and said, "The Xu family's strong memory is all because the temperature this year is much higher than in previous years, which makes me a little anxious, but fortunately, it's only about a week away from previous years."

Xu Yan nodded and stopped talking.

Zhao Bailian smiled and said to Xu Yan: "Sit down. The pot of new tea on the table is the Mingqiantou tea that Lao Qiao went to the newly picked yesterday morning. After a night of sleepless stir-frying and drying, it is rare. You might as well try it."

Xu Yan sat down in response, reached out and picked up the tea cup that Lao Qiao had prepared for him. He took a sip and felt the fragrance of tea permeate. Then he drank it all, and bursts of sweetness came from his mouth, like drinking the rain and dew of the mountain spring, refreshing and reminiscent of the heart.

Xu Yan, who believed that he had no talent in taste and was even a little slow, couldn't help but exclaim after drinking this cup of Mingqian tea: "It's really a good tea, but this tea should be made by Uncle Qiao."

When Zhao Bailian heard this, she was immediately amazed and laughed, "You are so timid!"

Lao Qiao didn't care that the tea he brewed casually was used as a comparison by the other party, but he couldn't help laughing.

A moment later, Zhao Bailian took out a white porcelain tea cup, took out a few pieces of tea from the bamboo basket and put it in it, and then brewed it directly from boiling water. Then she handed it to Xu Yan and said, "You have been with me for more than three years, but my master has not taught you any real useful skills. This cup of tea is regarded as the compensation for your dereliction of duty in the past three years."

Zhao Bailian is extremely particular about drinking tea, so the crude technique of brewing directly like now is not common in him. However, Xu Yan did not study these details in depth, but just respectfully reached out to take the tea cup handed over by the other party.

However, when Lao Qiao, who was sitting aside, could not help but feel a little more shocked when he saw this scene, especially when he looked at Xu Yan, there was a bit more meaningful look in his smile.

In the white porcelain cup, the tea leaves that were originally cured in an iron pot and completely dried by charcoal fire were undoubtedly restored to a new green look after being soaked and washed away by boiling water. Xu Yan looked at the tea with only four tea leaves in the cup, but still didn't understand the meaning of his master's words.

Seeing that he was suspicious, Zhao Bailian smiled and said, "When you finish drinking this cup of tea, I will take you to another place for you."

When Xu Yan heard this, he no longer hesitated and looked up and drank the tea in the cup. However, the tea made of only four tea leaves was indeed too light, so he did not taste the rich aroma of tea as before.
Chapter completed!