On the way, he took out the magic weapon and used the method taught by Fairy Shengxuan and Fire Charm Girl to study the runes on it while staring at it intently and concentrating his spiritual consciousness.
Soon, I figured out the function of this magic weapon.
—Magic weapon: Earth Brave Tiger.
—Divine Crystal: Earth Brave Star.
—The effect of using it is to obtain a divine body and divine power in a short period of time, and the physical strength and power will increase exponentially. It can only be used once a day.
—Number of uses remaining: five.
The divine crystal itself cannot be used and must be cast into a magic weapon or absorbed by the human body.
The divine crystal used in this magic weapon is called "Earth Brave Star". As for "Earth Brave Tiger", it is just a random name given by the caster after casting the divine crystal into a magic weapon. Because it was cast into the shape of a tiger, it was named "Earth Brave Tiger".
The divine light inside the magic weapon dimmed, and it seemed that it had indeed been used today. It was even possible that Zhao Haisong had snatched it from someone else.
After running for several miles, the rain gradually weakened. At the edge of a huge pit in the distance, Shi Hao heard Master Lu and the hunters shouting "Young Master, Young Master" repeatedly.
Shi Hao made a big circle and then pretended to crawl out of the mud to meet them.
Seeing that the young master was safe and sound, Master Lu and the others breathed a sigh of relief and escorted their young master down the mountain in the rain.
They didn't know that in such a short time, their young master was no longer just a weak scholar.
—
In a small town outside the mountains, in a homestay, Shi Hao was soaking in a bucket of hot water.
He took out the Jade Clear Stone and the magic weapon "Earth Brave Star" and studied them again. It was already dawn, the sun was shining brightly outside, and there were no clouds in the sky.
It seemed as if yesterday's rainstorm had swept away all the filth in the sky.
There was steam all around me and I felt extremely comfortable soaking in the hot water.
Shi Hao thought to himself, "Although I am already an eighth-grade warrior, if I want to advance to the next level, I must practice both the Immortal Ice Art and the Mysterious Charm Art to perfection. In the process, I also need to find the medicinal materials for refining the seventh-grade immortal recipe. I don't know if there is anywhere to buy this kind of thing.
"And this trip to Jin County is also a bit troublesome. As the young master of Xiaohan Mountain City, I am forced to marry the daughter of the Wusu clan. If I don't go, I will offend the county marquis, and Xiaohan Mountain City will be in a more difficult situation in the future.
"But if I really marry her, Xiaohanshan City will probably become a vassal of the Wusu clan, and I, as a dignified Chinese citizen, will become the son-in-law of the barbarians."
Thinking of this, he frowned tightly.
Ever since Lie Zunyi invaded China, the entire Jin clan has been named the "royal family", and a large number of Chinese people have become the inferior clans, and intermarriage between the two clans is prohibited.
However, over the years, the so-called "royal" upper echelons have become increasingly corrupt, and the lower-class Chinese people have never stopped secretly resisting in various ways.
Until the Barbarian Prime Minister Fu Tu, who was said to have martial arts skills comparable to the "Emperor Emeritus", took control of the court and began to implement the "Jin-Xia Family" policy, allowing the Jin and Huaxia tribes to intermarry.
This policy is said to have caused strong dissatisfaction among the top leaders of the Jin clan.
However, the "retired emperor" Lie Zunyi had been in seclusion for a long time and had long ignored the affairs of the court. The current Man Ting emperor Zu Chiwu obeyed the prime minister's orders and began to forcibly implement the policy of "Jinxia is one family".
The marriage between Xiaohanshan City and Wusu clan originated from this.
However, Wusu Baoteng, the patriarch of the Wusu clan and the Marquis of Jin County, would never allow his daughter to marry into a "lowly clan", so he asked his younger brother to select a girl from the clan, adopt her as his daughter, and marry her to the young city lord of Xiaohanshan City.
For Xiaohanshan City, this was undoubtedly a shame, but for the Wusu clan, they felt that Xiaohanshan City was out of their league.
If it had been twenty or thirty years earlier, Xiaohanshan City would not even have had the opportunity to marry the daughter of the Wusu family.
Then again…
Shi Hao was wiping his body in the hot water, thinking self-deprecatingly.
He was clearly heading to Jin County for a marriage alliance, but halfway through the journey, for unknown reasons, he was no longer a virgin.
I don’t know if the two “wives” in Yuanshi Cave are fighting again.
With their abilities, if he could really enter the fourth level as soon as possible and help them leave Yuanshi Cave Heaven, it would undoubtedly be a great help to China.
The premise is that after they come out, they don’t continue to “kill each other”.
After bathing, he sat cross-legged on the simple wooden bed in the room, ready to practice martial arts, but he was wondering whether he should practice the Immortal Ice Art first or the Mysterious Charm Art first
Suddenly, he felt something in his heart, even though at that time, the two women were simply playing with his life.
But the two of them did lay the foundations of two kinds of skills in his body at the same time.
Thinking of this, he actually began to try to practice two techniques at the same time.
The two kinds of skills, Taoism and magic, which were supposed to be incompatible, were like entangled yin and yang fish in his body. While fighting against each other, they actually worked perfectly.
More importantly, they stimulate and counteract each other, and unknowingly, they grow rapidly together.
Even when he lay down to sleep, they were still in this delicate balance, suppressing and promoting each other, running without any pause.
In the history of martial arts, no one has ever cultivated both the Taoist and demonic foundations at the same time. Such a wonderful thing was probably hard to imagine even for Fairy Shengxuan and the Fire Charm Girl.
After the night passed, when Shi Hao woke up the next day, he not only did not feel tired at all, but was full of energy.
The power of the Immortal Ice Art and the Mysterious Charm in his body further increased, and the speed of improvement was so fast that even he was shocked.
If you practice in this way, it won’t take long before you can practice these two techniques to perfection, right
Chapter 10: Female Thief
On the way to Jin County, I saw many tenants working hard in the fields.
Although they were called tenants, these lowest-class Chinese people were actually no different from serfs.
There are naturally large families or wealthy people who maintain a certain degree of autonomy like Xiaohanshan City.
After all, it is impossible for the Barbarian Court to kill all the landlords and gentry of the Huaxia ethnic group. In order to maintain stability, most of the time, it is necessary to win them over appropriately.
Therefore, the truly pitiful ones are these lowest-class, helpless people.
Shi Hao had also thought about taking advantage of Xiaohan Mountain City's remote location to develop farming and secretly accumulate strength.
However, this is a world of magical powers and martial arts. Even if they develop secretly for ten years, it may not be enough for the prime minister of the Barbarian Court to defeat him alone, not to mention the "emperor" of the Barbarian Court who has lived for three hundred years.
In this world where great power belongs to oneself, personal strength is the most important thing.
As the city gate was in sight, suddenly a large group of people rushed out of the city gate.
They rode their horses and attacked the people outside the city gate recklessly, causing panic in the crowd.
Shi Hao saw that the soldiers on horseback were divided into several teams and dispersed. One team of cavalry was galloping in this direction.
They retreated to the side of the road, and a leader stopped in front of them and shouted arrogantly: "Where are you from?"
Master Lu bowed and said, "We are from Xiaohanshan City. We are summoned by the county marquis to come to Jincheng."
The man quickly glanced at them, took out a wanted poster from his pocket, and threw it in front of them: "Have you seen such a woman on the road?"
Shi Hao, Master Lu and others looked at it together, and saw a painting of a girl, who seemed to be a young girl, but with her face covered and a five-petal flower stuck in her hair.
Master Lu laughed and said, "Sir, this girl's face is covered. Even if we really see her on the street, I think she can't still dress up like a female thief. How can we recognize her?"
The man flipped over the wanted poster and took a look. He couldn't help but laugh at himself, "That's true. Where can we find a painting like this? It would be better if they didn't even give us the painting and asked us to go around and ask if there's a girl with flowers in her hair and a mask on her face. Anyway, once she throws away her mask and takes off the flowers, we won't know what she looks like."
He shook his head and led the team forward again. He obviously knew that it was a waste of time, but his superiors asked them to search, and he had no choice but to go.
When Shi Hao and others entered the city gate, they saw the wanted poster posted on the bulletin board inside the city gate. There were also many soldiers scattered around the city, holding those paintings and asking questions from house to house in a funny way.
"It would be strange if we can find it!" a hunter beside Shi Hao whispered.
Master Lu said, "I don't know what this girl did to cause such a big scene. To be able to commit such a serious crime and get away with it, triggering a city-wide manhunt, she must not be an ordinary person."
Xiaohanshan City is located in Jincheng and also has a house. After moving in, Shi Hao took the visiting card and went to the marquis' mansion.
We walked all the way to the Marquis' Mansion. As we were walking on the main road, the surrounding buildings were majestic and magnificent, and colorful sedan chairs were coming and going.
Across the river, on the other side of the river, the houses are low, dirty and poor, as if the two sides of the river belong to completely different worlds.
The rich young men and ladies from official families who come and go on this road will never be able to see the situation on the other side.
Poems like "The rich have wine and meat, while the poor freeze to death on the streets" seem to never go out of style.
He arrived at the magnificent marquis's mansion and presented his visiting card. Soon, someone led him in, but asked him to stay in a corner in front of the main hall.
After waiting for a quarter of an hour, Shi Hao vaguely sensed that someone was secretly observing him.
He was a little confused, not knowing who was watching him from the dark, but he just stood there, not moving, pretending to be completely unaware...
—
"Is that the young city lord of Xiaohan Mountain City?" The young girl's voice sounded from a corner high on the wall. "He looks okay, but it's a pity that he is from a lowly family."
The voice was sharp and somewhat unhappy: "Why should I marry someone like this?"
The marquis's mansion is vast and is divided into the inner and outer palaces. The inside and the outside are separated by high walls, and there are arrow towers on both sides.
Next to one of the arrow towers, there were three girls. The one who was speaking was called Usuyana.
Although she is not good-looking, she is still a member of the "royal family" after all.
At this moment, because of the decree of the Jin Xia family, she was about to marry the young city lord of Xiaohanshan City, which made her quite dissatisfied.
A woman next to him smiled and said, "She looks pretty good, and when she gets to Xiaohanshan City, she will be a young lady after all."
Wu Suyan said with a spit, "Who wants a young lady from a poor village like that? Marrying someone from a lowly tribe makes you even lower in status. How can people be so different from each other
"Look at Wusulitong, she is the same age as me. In order to find her a suitable husband, the Marquis specially held this Hongtong Banquet and invited several young masters from the surrounding counties. He wanted her to choose for herself, so why don't I have a choice?"
The other woman whispered, "How can this be the same? She is the county lady."
Ursuline snorted and looked at the young man in the distance with contempt and dissatisfaction.
She had no problem with his appearance, but she had problems with his background. If she married him, she was afraid that the children they would have in the future would be considered as members of a lowly family.
Ignoring the persuasion of the two people around her, she left with dissatisfaction.
—
"The Jin and Huaxia are one family. It's easy to say, but how can it be done?" In the luxurious hall, County Marquis Wusu Baoteng put down his teacup and said, "Since the founding of the country by the Supreme Emperor, the entire Jin clan has been regarded as the royal family, other clans as middle-class, and the Huaxia clan as low-class. Although there is no such thing as 'lowly clan' in the documents, we have been used to it after so many years.
"The royal family has been high and mighty for so many years, and now the prime minister wants to marry into a family. Several major families are all dissatisfied. Except for the Tai family who fully supports the prime minister's side, the other families are all secretly boycotting. If this continues, who knows how the prime minister will end up in the future."
At this point, Wusu Baoteng sighed, "But we have to do it. I met Master Chongliang of the Yueketai family a few days ago, and he said something to me. The Jinxia family must continue. It's too late to do it now. We should have done it a hundred years earlier."
The person listening next to him was his younger brother Wusu Baodi.
Wu Su Baodi asked: "Brother, why do you say that?"
Wu Su Bao Teng said: "You know it yourself. The so-called royal family nowadays has relied on power to abuse their power. To what extent have they become corrupt? Where did their power come from? It was all granted by the retired emperor. Without the retired emperor's illustrious military exploits, there would be no Great Jin Dynasty."
"But, to put it bluntly, how long can the emperor protect us? Those people don't understand that we, the 'royal family', are sitting on a volcano that could erupt at any time. We may seem high and mighty, but once the volcano erupts, we will be shattered to pieces and have no place to bury our bodies."
"Suppressing the Central Plains martial arts, destroying the Central Plains' methods, destroying the Central Plains' ways, destroying the Central Plains' martial arts classics, and digging up the roots of the Central Plains martial arts... these are indeed effective. But now it seems that after one wave of resistance subsides, another wave rises, and this struggle has never stopped."
"On the contrary, the major families of the royal family, relying on the grace of the retired emperor, have powerful martial arts and magical weapons that can dominate the area. However, over the years, under the corruption of power and status, their roots have decayed and their ambitions have been defeated. The courage and spirit of the ancestors of the major families who followed the retired emperor to build the country have long been gone."
"The Huaxia people's resistance has come in waves, but it has never succeeded in the past because they don't have a backbone like our Jin people's emperor. But it is endless. In the past three hundred years, they have never compromised."
"The purpose of Jinxia's family ties is to win over all the local gentry that can be won over, split the Huaxia people, and use the Huaxia to control the Huaxia. They don't understand the prime minister's good intentions, and always say that the prime minister wants to bury the royal family, pollute the royal bloodline, and weaken the royal family's authority."
"They just don't understand. The Prime Minister is helping everyone to get down from this volcano that could erupt at any time. We should be more humble, be nicer to the Huaxia people, and be sincere to those who are willing to join us. This is for the good of all of us."
Wu Su Bao Di smiled bitterly and said, "Brother, that's the truth, but it's really not that simple. For example, in Xiaohan Mountain City, I have three daughters, but none of them is willing to marry there. I have to choose one from the clan and force her to 'marry down'.
"They think they are royalty, marrying a lowly person, what's going on? Some even say..."
He paused, then stopped again.
Wusu Baoteng picked up the teacup and snorted, "Are you saying that since I want to obey the Prime Minister's order and marry the Jinxia family, why don't I marry Litong myself?"
Wu Subao said: "Brother..."
Wusu Baoteng put down his teacup again and waved his hand: "Forget it, their complaints are not wrong. Even though I sound reasonable, I really don't want to marry Li Tong to them."
"It's not that I think this policy is wrong, but I have to think about my daughter... and everyone thinks the same way."
"Let's not talk about this for now. Was the female thief caught last night?"
Wu Su Baodi said angrily, "What are you arresting? Ming Kun Temple didn't say what was stolen from them. It was the middle of the night and the female thief was very skilled in Qing Gong. The Taoists didn't even see her appearance clearly. They just knew that she had her face covered and was wearing flowers."
"Because we have the warrant from Yue Ketai's family, I did distribute the portrait of the female thief and ordered the whole county to search for her. But if you ask me, there's no way we can catch her."
Wusu Baoteng frowned and asked, "What exactly was lost at Mingkun Temple? Why did it alarm the Yueketai family, but they didn't explain anything clearly?"
Wu Subao said, "Brother, since they won't explain clearly, we can just deal with it casually. If we can't catch the person, it can't be blamed on us, right? The master of Mingkun Temple has many people under him, let him catch it himself."
Wusu Baoteng nodded, sat on the luxurious sandalwood chair, and said, "Let Shi Hao come in. Although Xiaohan Mountain City is not a martial arts sect, it has a large population and pays a lot of grain and miscellaneous taxes every year. It represents the hearts of the people of West Shu, so we still need to win them over."
Wusu Baodi went out and asked the butler to call in the young city lord of Xiaohanshan City at the door.