The Path of the Sage

Chapter 12: Lip-sharp tongue

Views:

Just as the Black Mist Assassin was about to launch an attack, a loud shout was rang out.

"Stop! The Ji County Captain is here, how dare you, you rats, act so recklessly!" Captain Lu shouted from afar and threw out his precious badge.

A human voice suddenly appeared in the air, reciting the war poem "Canglang Xing" by Chen Guanhai, a semi-saint of Jing State. Along with the recitation, a loud sound of waves hitting the shore exploded in the air. The Wenbao waist badge turned into a three-meter-high blue wave that blocked Fang Yun and Liu Zicheng, covering the sky and ready to fall and hit them at any time.

Liu Zicheng subconsciously stopped writing, took three steps back, and tightly grasped the brush in his hand. The brush began to glow slightly, and it turned out to be a cultural treasure.

Liu Zicheng turned around and said, "Captain Lu, I am Liu Zicheng from the Dayuan Liu family. My eldest brother was the champion of Jiangzhou, and my uncle is the left prime minister of the current dynasty. You leave immediately, and I will pretend that what happened today did not happen."

Captain Lu said righteously, "You assassinated the Saint-Father Tongsheng in the street. I am the captain of Ji County. How can I stand by and watch? The badge of Wen Bao has been moved. The seal of the county lord will certainly respond. Put down Wen Bao and wait for the county lord's decision!"

In the Academy of Literature, Magistrate Cai changed into casual clothes and was going to the Jixiang Restaurant for a banquet, followed by an extremely strong man.

The sturdy man looked like an ordinary person below the neck, but his head was not a human head, but a bull's head, a bull-barbarian.

A juren can maintain two private soldiers with armor.

A Jinshi can maintain four private soldiers, not limited to monsters or barbarians.

The Bull Barbarian was holding a small yellow silk package in his hand, which contained the official seal, which the county magistrate had to carry with him when he went out.

The yellow silk package suddenly moved slightly.

Magistrate Cai's expression changed, and his whole body was filled with energy. He reached out and took the official seal.

His eyes were flashing, as if he was looking down at the whole county from a high altitude. Then, through the official seal and Captain Lu's badge, he saw what was happening at the door of Fang Yun's house, saw the half poem "The Assassination of Qin" and saw that Fang Yun was trapped.

Magistrate Cai was so angry that his beard was shaking. Ji County had finally produced a student who might become famous throughout the world, but the Liu family actually dared to kill him.

"Bold lunatic!"

Magistrate Cai shouted loudly, and a white light flew out of his mouth and condensed into an ancient white sword in front of him.

The two sides were too far apart, and even the scholars' verbal battles could not reach them, but the entire county was shrouded in the power of the Academy of Literature. Magistrate Cai gripped the official seal with force, and used the power accumulated by the Academy of Literature for hundreds of years to activate the ancient sword of talent.

With a "whoosh" sound, the ancient sword of talent cut through the sky, and with a sharp sound of breaking through the air, it arrived above Fang Yun's home in two breaths.

The Caiqi Ancient Sword exuded a powerful oppressive force, and Liu Zicheng's hand holding the pen began to tremble.

Liu Zicheng was so frightened that his face turned pale. He knew too well how terrifying Jinshi was, and he knew even more that the other party would die to protect Fang Yun. If he dared to attack again, he would surely die.

Liu Zicheng immediately shouted, "I hope that Lord Cai will understand. I am Liu Zicheng, a scholar from Dayuan Prefecture. I ranked ninth in the prefectural examination three years ago. I didn't know Fang Yun was a student before. Now that I know, I will never do anything!"

The voice of Magistrate Cai came from the Caiqi Ancient Sword: "Besieging a student in broad daylight is a heinous crime!"

The ancient sword of talent suddenly disappeared, swept across the neck of a servant at a speed that could not be captured by the naked eye, and then returned to mid-air.

"Ugh..." The servant suddenly covered his neck with both hands, blood spurted out from between his fingers and from his mouth, and then he slowly fell to the ground.

The pungent smell of blood spread in the air, and the sand on the ground gradually turned red.

The other three servants were terrified and quickly knelt on the ground, kowtowed and shouted, "Sir, please spare us! Sir, please spare us!"

"Captain Lu, take these three people to the prison and interrogate them on a later date. As for Liu Zicheng, he is not allowed to leave the territory of Dayuan Prefecture until this case is resolved. Otherwise, he will be regarded as absconding from the crime."

Liu Zicheng hurriedly bowed and said, "I know I was wrong." After that, he hurriedly got on the carriage and left in embarrassment.

"Xiao Yun." Yang Yuhuan cried and threw herself into Fang Yun's arms. Fang Yun gently patted her back to comfort her.

Fang Yun was extremely grateful to County Magistrate Cai. When he was about to thank him, he found that thank you was too vulgar and had no weight. After all, he was the first among the students, while the other party was a county magistrate who had passed the imperial examination.

Fang Yun pondered for a moment, then composed a poem aloud: "Beside Cai's inkstone-washing pond stands a tree, each flower blooms with a faint trace of ink; I don't want people to praise its beauty, I just want to leave its pure spirit to fill the universe! Student Fang Yun, I write this poem to thank Cai He."

Captain Lu was stunned, thinking that he was worthy of being the first in the double-class case. This poem was at least of the county level. It did not say a word about how good Magistrate Cai was, but only wrote about the flowers in Magistrate Cai's home, but it praised Magistrate Cai to the sky. Literati want to be famous for their writings, but also have to consider the impact. This kind of silent flattery is called clever, not to mention that he did not forget to name the poem "Thank Cai He".

Captain Lu became even more determined to get close to Fang Yun. Having talent was nothing, but it was rare for someone to know how to behave at such a young age. His future achievements would surely be limitless.

"What a good poem! What a good poem! It fills the universe with pure energy. Only Lord Cai can be described as such." Captain Lu praised loudly.

As soon as this poem came out, the ancient sword of talent moved, and then slowly dissipated. County Magistrate Cai said nothing.

Captain Lu looked at the place where the Caiqi Ancient Sword disappeared with awe, put away his captain badge, handed the invitation to Fang Yun with both hands, and said, "This is the invitation that the county lord asked me to give you, inviting you to attend the literary gathering at the Jixiang Restaurant."

Fang Yun also took it with both hands and said, "Thank you, Captain Lu."

Captain Lu smiled and said, "You're welcome. Since Mr. Fang has won the first place in the case, I wanted to go in and ask for a cup of tea, but I still have to handle the case, so I won't go in. This is my gift money, congratulations to Mr. Fang. You also know that we in the government don't have much money, I'm sure you will accept this five taels of silver. If you have any problems in the future, you can come to me directly. I will go through fire and water for you without hesitation." As he said that, Captain Lu took out a five-tael silver ingot.

Yang Yuhuan didn't expect that the gift from Captain Lu would be so heavy. The gifts for ordinary people's weddings were no more than a hundred copper coins. These five taels of silver were equivalent to five thousand coins. She also didn't expect that someone would call Fang Yun "Master Fang".

Fang Yun declined, "Captain Lu, you are too polite. I haven't thanked you for your help yet, so how can I accept your gift?"

"Let's keep it to ourselves. We can't confuse the two things. You take it. I'll let them leave right away."

Captain Lu stuffed the silver into Fang Yun's hand and ordered three servants to carry the body away.

Fang Yun watched Captain Lu leaving, but he was thinking about the precious badge in his heart.

The so-called literary treasure is a treasure formed by the fact that scholars who have passed the imperial examination or above have poured their lifelong talents into an object through poetry and prose before their death. Depending on the different poems and prose injected into it, its function varies.

All saints are different. Each saint has its own world of talent. Any item that is commonly used by the saints and can carry their talent will naturally become a cultural treasure.

At least one had to be a scholar to use the most basic literary treasure of a juren, so some people of juren or above rank who found that their descendants were uncultivable would choose to make a literary treasure according to the requirements of the court in exchange for wealth and honor for their descendants.

The waist badge of Captain Lu is inscribed with the name Wenbao, a Juren. Before his death, this Juren used the famous work "Canglang Xing" by Chen Guanhai, a half-saint of Jing State, as a medium to inject his talent into the waist badge and dedicate it to Jing State, in exchange for the promotion of one of his sons from a student to an "official scholar", and the granting of the title of "county marquis" to his grandson.

The so-called "official scholar" is a person who receives the same treatment as a scholar in Jingguo, but is not recognized by the Academy of Literature and must be registered with the Academy of Literature.

The higher the literary rank, the stronger the cultural treasures offered, and the higher the status of descendants.

If a Grand Secretary or even a Semi-Saint donated cultural treasures before his death, it would be a great achievement, equivalent to military merit, and his descendants could inherit a very high title.

Every country has some people who have obtained titles because of their ancestors' military merits or literary treasures. These people are collectively called "nobles". They may not have a high status in other countries, but they have a high status in their own country and receive many preferential treatments.

Fang Yun saw the bloodstain out of the corner of his eye, and without even having time to envy those who had literary treasures, he went to look for something to deal with the bloodstain, but Yang Yuhuan said she would do it.

"Aren't you afraid of human blood?" Fang Yun asked.

"I have killed chickens and pigs before. What does a mere trace of blood mean? I'm just afraid that I haven't killed enough people!" Yang Yuhuan hated the people who hurt Fang Yun.

Fang Yun said: "If we kill them all, wouldn't that help Liu Zicheng to destroy the bodies? He killed one to prove his determination, and left three to indicate that he might pursue them later."

Yang Yuhuan suddenly realized what was going on and asked, "Why didn't they arrest that bastard Liu Zicheng as well?"

"He is a scholar, the son of a famous family, and a relative of the Left Prime Minister. Even if we catch him in the yamen, we can only let him go without solid evidence, which will help him clear suspicion. If he is not careful or Liu Zicheng plays a trick, other officials will definitely impeach Magistrate Cai and ignore us. Now that the three servants detained by Magistrate Cai are here, Liu Zicheng will be suspected of murder. Not only will the Liu family not ask for help from the Left Prime Minister Liu Shan, they will cover it up. With those three servants, Magistrate Cai can attack or defend."

Yang Yuhuan stared at Fang Yun, her eyes flashing with strangeness, and said softly: "Xiao Yun, you have really become amazing. You even understand this kind of truth. No wonder you can pass the top two exams."

Fang Yun said: "In fact, if you read more books, you will understand it more."

"Well, our Xiao Yun is very capable! Captain Lu gave him five taels of silver, and I don't know how much other people who congratulated him will give. You are really a great guy!" Yang Yuhuan looked up and felt that Fang Yun had grown up more and more.

"No matter what I do, half of the credit goes to Sister Yuhuan." Fang Yun smiled, his eyes full of warmth.

"I'll go and get busy." Yang Yuhuan suddenly realized that she didn't dare to look Fang Yun in the eye, so she gently lifted her skirt and quickly left.

Fang Yun looked in the direction where Liu Zicheng disappeared, and his eyes gradually turned cold.

"Those three servants will not confess. If they do, their whole family will be in trouble. Even if they confess, they will probably only say that Liu Zicheng ordered them to teach me a lesson instead of killing me, and they won't leave any evidence. The key is that I was not a student at that time, and he was a scholar. He would not be severely punished. There have been similar cases before. County Magistrate Cai has already done his best by killing a servant directly. This Liu Zicheng dared to kill me even though he knew I was a student before the Saint. He will definitely not let me go in the future. I can't just sit there and wait for death. The day I become a scholar will be the day when Liu Zicheng dies!"

At this moment, Ge Xiaomao's breathless voice came from the other side: "Fang Yun! Fang Yun! You passed the exam and ranked first! Why didn't you go to the Academy of Literature to see the results announced!"