In fact, with the power of the Xiao family, if the young man wanted to become an official, he could become an official even if he did not take the imperial examination. However, the imperial examination was not only a way for scholars and ordinary people to get promoted, it was also a good way for the children of officials to prove themselves. As long as they were not really playboys, with outstanding family resources and some connections, they could often achieve good results in the imperial examination.
When Ji Yuan was rowing away, he naturally heard the words behind him saying that he was looking for so-and-so to have tea. This was obviously a statement related to the imperial examination, and the young master did not object. It could only be said that this was some kind of customary practice among the high-ranking officials of the feudal dynasty.
Of course, these people did not dare to go too far. At most, they would get some guidance and work hard. If they went too far, the emperor's majesty would be no joke. In the history of Dazhen, there were officials who were executed for leaking test questions.
"I can only say Master Yin, your opponents in the imperial examination are so strong!"
The wupeng boat rowed farther and farther away, completely out of the sight of the big ship.
It was completely dark, and Ji Yuan simply tried his best once more. With a strong paddle in the water, the boat would go far away. The wooden paddle was extremely tough under the protection of a weak magic power, and would not break due to the huge force that obviously exceeded its load capacity.
Before midnight, the black-sailed boat had already passed Zhuangyuan Ferry. There were lights and fires on the pier, as well as restaurants and inns. Not far away, the Tongtianjiang Temple also had lanterns hanging high and incense burning in the air.
However, on this cold winter night, there were no ferries plying the river.
After a while, Ji Yuan rowed the boat to the place where he used to dock. He breathed a sigh of relief. He wondered if Old Man Chen would report to the police in a hurry since he couldn't find him these days.
Ji Yuan didn't care about all that. He tied the boat rope at the shore, walked to the bottom of the black sail, closed the bamboo doors on both sides, covered himself with a quilt and fell asleep inside.
Early the next morning, a familiar voice came from the shore.
"Mr. Ji? Mr. Ji, is that you? Mr. Ji~~~~"
In fact, Ji Yuan opened his eyes when he heard the footsteps approaching, and then he naturally got out of the cabin.
Seeing Ji Yuan coming out, the old man on the shore also breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hey Mr. Ji, where have you been boating these days? It's so cold and you disappeared for so many days without even saying hello. I was so worried that you..."
Old man Chen stopped talking here, but Ji Yuan also knew what he meant, and bowed to Old man Chen with great apology.
"It's Ji's fault. I really didn't think it through. I hope Mr. Chen can forgive me. I couldn't catch any fish in the past few days, and then I met a good friend who said that we could catch more fish by boating farther away. We also wanted to go boating and enjoy the snow, so we went together. I forgot to leave a message for Mr. Chen."
Old man Chen shook his head and pointed at Ji Yuan with his hand.
"You've been gone for so long, I was really scared, but I'm glad you're back, I'm glad you're back..."
After complaining for a long time, Old Man Chen finally adjusted his attitude. It was also because Ji Yuan was easy to talk to and they were familiar with each other that he dared to talk so much.
At this moment, Old Man Chen habitually looked at the fish basket near the bow of the boat, and sure enough, it was still empty.
"Mr. Ji, you and your friend didn't catch any fish, did you?"
"Yeah, we didn't catch any fish, so everyone left disappointed!"
"Yes, it's been really weird lately. The people in the village can't catch any fish. The fish don't show up. At most, they can catch some small fish and shrimps. No one is taking the bait when fishing. Mr. Ji, do you think it will be like this after the spring?"
As the old man spoke, he moved closer to the shore and handed a lotus leaf package in his hand to Ji Yuan, with a wisp of steam still coming out of it.
Ji Yuan's nose twitched, he happily took the lotus leaf bag and spoke casually.
"Have you asked for help from the Goddess of the River?"
"I begged, how could I not beg!"
"That's okay, I think it will be fine soon!"
"Oh, I hope so! Oh, by the way, Mr. Ji, do you want to drink? If so, I'll get you some local wine in the afternoon?"
Ji Yuan thought about it and it seemed that the last time he hadn’t finished drinking it, the old dragon swept him and his boat away.
"No, no, I still have some wine. I'll ask the old man for it when I need it."
"Okay, Mr. Ji, enjoy your meal. I'll be leaving now."
"Okay, Uncle Chen, take care!"
Old man Chen relaxed and walked more briskly. He was of course a little concerned about Ji Yuan, but he was more afraid that a murder might have really happened.
After Old Man Chen walked away, Ji Yuan untied the rope that was tied to the pile on the shore, picked up the oars, pushed the boat against the shore, and rowed it away.
These foreign water creatures, especially the dragons that gathered in large numbers, will gradually leave, and the disturbed aquatic creatures in the river should return to normal soon.
As usual, he found a suitable position and sat on a small stool at the bow, fishing with dried insects as bait while untying lotus leaves and eating buns, with a new book borrowed from Lao Long on his knees.
The name of this book is "Imperial Theory". It is not a book of heavenly talismans, but it is certainly not an ordinary book, so Ji Yuan can see it clearly. Moreover, there seems to be another mystery between the lines of this book. If people with insufficient concentration stare at the words in the book for a long time, they will feel dizzy and even have hallucinations.
This book, like the several books Ji Yuan had obtained before, did not have the author's signature.
Ji Yuan once thought with some evil humor that maybe because it was ultimately a world of demons and immortals, those authors were actually afraid that their works would be displeased by some powerful and evil demon, who would directly come to discuss the doctrine with them or simply beat them up, so they did not sign their names.
"Yu Lun" is not a book of magic formulas. To be precise, it is a book that helps you understand the "Yu Fa category" of magic formulas. Generally, such thick books are mostly miscellaneous books, such as "Hereditary Biography" and "Tongming Ce".
The key is that this kind of miscellaneous book is good-looking and interesting!
As the saying goes, a Dharma is not easily passed on. The true Dharma secrets are often not so complex and numerous, and are mostly preserved in objects that convey the essence of the Dharma, such as the several borrowed jade sticks and jade slips that Ji Yuan had on hand.
However, Ji Yuan believed that there was profound knowledge in these miscellaneous books, and some of the fantastic ideas were worth pondering. This "Theory of Controlling" talked about the author's research on controlling water, fire, wind, lightning, etc., from the basics to the advanced levels. It did not discuss the orthodox methods, but only talked about experiences and guesses.
Based on the proportion of insights and guesses on various methods of controlling lightning, Ji Yuan can easily analyze the author's own spiritual attainments and the methods he knows. For example, the author probably does not know how to control lightning, and this part of the content is basically all hearsay and assumptions, or speculation and discussion.
While flipping through the book with a bun in his mouth, he came across the most exciting part, which was about the details of how water can be soft or hard. This coincided with Ji Yuan's own experience. This feeling of being itchy made Ji Yuan smile from ear to ear.
The tip of the fishing rod in his left hand trembled slightly, and the float rose and fell. Ji Yuan stuffed half of the bun in his right hand into his mouth and looked towards the float.
'Is this a fish?'
After looking under the water for a while, Ji Yuan, with a grin, turned his head and looked towards the official road on the shore in the distance, where two scholars carrying book boxes were walking together.
"Brother Yin, it's all my fault that I got you into trouble. I should have known it was a scam, but I didn't listen to your advice. Now, both of us have lost our money..."
One of the scholars kept sighing.
Although Yin Zhaoxian was also a little depressed, he was much more free and easy than his companions.
"Okay, Brother Shi, stop blaming yourself. Just take this as a lesson learned!"
"That's what I said, but this kind of despicable person actually dared to file a complaint first. If it weren't for Brother Yin's status as the top scholar in Jizhou, we would have been thrown into prison. I can't even swallow this thought!"
Yin Zhaoxian tightened the straps of his bookcase, rubbed his frozen hands, breathed out warm air, and looked at the person next to him.
"In this case, we must take the imperial examinations and become officials to settle such cases in the future. Today's disaster may be a blessing in the future!"
"That makes sense, Brother Yin is right!"
The two talked as they walked, and after a while they finally approached the bank of Tongtian River. During the time they talked about whether the remaining money would be enough to take the ferry, how many months it would take for the exam to start, how to spend the time in between, and other concerns.
Even Yin Zhaoxian was a little worried and could only take things one step at a time.
"There's a boatman over there. Shall we go ask him how far Zhuangyuan Ferry is?"
"Okay, let's go over and ask!"
Although the two scholars were tired, they still quickened their pace.
Under the river, a Yaksha was full of doubts, wondering why the fisherman didn't lift his rod. Was he blind and didn't know he had caught a fish? Or should he change to a bigger one
His Highness Longzi suddenly ordered him to find a fisherman here and catch a big fish for him from time to time. Although Yaksha was puzzled, he did not ask too much and just followed the order.
When he was about to change to another fish, the fisherman on the boat on the water suddenly lifted up his fishing rod.
Yin Zhaoxian and the scholar surnamed Shi had just reached the shore, and before they had time to shout to the sloop, they saw a fisherman on the boat lifting up his fishing rod and catching a huge white silver carp that looked to weigh at least 20 or 30 kilograms, splashing the water in the river.