In Shilong Lane, the sounds of people were roaring.
Only the Three Flavors Blacksmith Shop in the depths was as silent as the grave at this mont.
Chengming looked at the young man in front of him, who seed strange in every way.
"Fan Wubing..."
He searched through all his mories and could not find anything related to this na.
He was certain that Fan Wubing was indeed a fifteen or sixteen-year-old, and not soone else deliberately disguised as a youth.
But how could a fifteen or sixteen-year-old know the "Dragon-Soothing Sound"?
That was a taboo in Great Li.
Chengming sat down, lit a dry pipe, and the swirling smoke slightly eased the atmosphere in the blacksmith shop.
He crossed his legs and said, "I don't know where your confidence cos from. Don't tell you're just a reckless and frivolous youth."
Fan Wubing's confidence was simple... He knew what Chengming needed.
"Master Cheng, I wonder if 'Rain Dragon's Echo' can serve as a form of confidence."
Chengming suddenly broke the pipe in his hand. He turned his head, his eyes flashing, completely enveloping Fan Wubing.
Fan Wubing felt his entire Qi and Blood stagnate and unable to flow, but his expression remained unchanged, still full of confidence.
"You're doing sothing foolish."
"This is not foolish."
"Since you know 'Rain Dragon's Echo', you should understand what it ans to ."
Fan Wubing said, "Yes, it is precisely because I know what it ans to you that I am here. Master Cheng, I've kept you waiting."
With one sentence, "I've kept you waiting," Chengming's tough deanor suddenly softened. His eyes twitched, his lips trembled slightly, and he withheld his aura. In the shadows, he asked softly, "Who exactly are you?"
Fan Wubing respectfully said, "I am rely Fan Wubing."
"I asked, who exactly are you?"
"I am rely Fan Wubing."
Chengming frowned as he looked at him, "Is that all?"
"What else does Master Cheng expect?"
"Does Dragon-Soothing Sound or 'Rain Dragon's Echo' have any relation to the na 'Fan Wubing'? What is your purpose, your plan?"
Fan Wubing took a deep breath and said, "I only hope Master Cheng will listen to a story."
After a mont of silence, Chengming said, "Go on."
"During one of my journeys, I ca upon a remote mountain, where I found a lone grave washed away by mountain rain in the wild woods. The tombstone read, 'Grave of beloved wife Jiang Nianshu, erected by husband Li Ming', and inside the tattered coffin lay a skeleton.
"I couldn't bear to see the dead exposed in the wilderness, so I decided to give it a proper burial. After the burial, I inexplicably felt very tired and slept for three days and nights, dreaming in the wild.
"I dreamt of a loving couple, inseparable, the husband forging tools, and the wife playing music, living in peace and joy. Perhaps I dreamt more, but after waking, only this remained. And a lody echoing in my mind, which was 'Rain Dragon's Echo', along with a long-held wish."
Chengming's voice trembled a bit, "What... wish?"
"Perhaps it was the wish of that skeleton's owner, hoping Master Cheng would play the Dragon-Soothing Sound once again."
After a long silence, Chengming asked, "How do you know these things?"
Fan Wubing smiled and said, "I'm not a fool. After that, I searched everywhere, following the nas 'Jiang Nianshu' and 'Li Ming', inquired at various Heaven and Earth Banks, and then I arrived here."
Would Chengming believe these words?
Fan Wubing was not sure either. In fact, he had never seen a washed-away grave on a remote mountain. That was just a story from a ga, which led to the 'Desire of the Heart' quest line.
In that story, in the end, you would obtain the music score of 'Rain Dragon's Echo'. Using that score, you could obtain the Dragon-Soothing Sound from 'Li Ming'. The Dragon-Soothing Sound was one of the preconditions to unlock 'Desire of the Heart'.
That's how the ga worked.
But this was the real world, where all relations ford through human interactions.
Fan Wubing had not rushed in blindly. Before coming, he had analyzed deeply, believing that soone who had been longing for his deceased wife for three hundred years would not be rude or unreasonable. Thus, he chose an honest approach to communicate with Chengming.
"Nian Shu..." Chengming's expression was dazed, and after a while, he said mournfully, "I didn't expect it had beco a wilderness and forest?"
"What kind of place was it before?"
Chengming looked sorrowful, "It used to be the holand of Nian Shu and . I never thought that in just three hundred years, it would beco a wilderness and forest."
Seeing his reaction, Fan Wubing breathed a sigh of relief, his analysis was correct.
Chengming looked at Fan Wubing, "Thank you for burying her again."
"There's no need for thanks, Master Cheng."
Chengming got up, lit a few more candles, and the shop beca brighter.
It was already late at night, and Shilong Lane had grown quieter.
"The 'Rain Dragon's Echo,' do you still rember it?" Chengming asked.
Fan Wubing replied, "Yes, I rember."
Chengming gave a bitter smile, "I morized it for hundreds of days and nights yet couldn't rember. It seems the tune truly is ant only for those destined to know it."
"Is it... difficult?" Fan Wubing thought it was just an ordinary tune. He indeed rembered it, and very clearly, because he heard it in the ga.
It wasn't that he had an exceptional mory; since cultivating, he found it easier to recall things he had seen and heard before.
Chengming said, "'Rain Dragon's Echo' is no ordinary tune; it's a magical sound with a legacy of the Dao. My wife Nian Shu received it by chance in a dream passed on by an elder, who perished afterward. Unexpectedly, it passed on again, this ti to you."
"So that's how it is."
Fan Wubing thought, this so-called 'Rain Dragon's Echo' might indeed be sothing extraordinary.
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