Fang Yun continued to eat. Yang Yuhuan said, "General Zhang sent someone to deliver a demon turtle egg. It was already pickled when it was delivered. It can be cooked for you to eat in seven days. When the person delivered it, he also told me to eat it in five days and not to eat too much every day."
"Well. Tell me what happened at home these days." Fang Yun said.
Yang Yuhuan happily talked about the trivial matters at home.
After a while, Nunu became drowsy from listening and looked at Fang Yun with a blank face, not understanding how he could keep listening. Unable to figure it out, it jumped onto Fang Yun's legs and took a nap.
Mrs. Jiang on the side secretly thought that Yang Yuhuan was blessed. Fang Yun had such a high status now, but he was willing to take the time to listen to Yang Yuhuan. He was really considerate. In the future, the couple would surely live in harmony and love each other deeply.
After dinner, Fang Yun said, "Come, I will teach you how to read."
"Yeah." Yang Yuhuan was even happier.
After teaching Yang Yuhuan how to read, Fang Yun returned to his study to practice calligraphy.
Fang Yun copied Liu Gongquan's "Shen Ce Army Stele" again and found that he had already entered the door. Moreover, since he had achieved success in the first level of "strokes falling with sound", he could learn from the strengths of various schools, and then apply what he has learned to other similar situations, so as to take his calligraphy level to a higher level.
"Of the four major styles of regular script, Yan style is dignified, masculine, and vigorous. If there was Yan Zhenqing in Shengyuan Continent, it would be good to learn his regular script, but there is no such person in Shengyuan Continent, and it would be inappropriate for me to be considered as someone who created Yan style. There can be genius in poetry, but the spirit in this calligraphy cannot be born naturally. Zhao style is beautiful but too close to running script. Since I started with Liu style, which takes the strengths of Ouyang Xun's Ouyang style, the next step is to learn Ouyang Xun's Ouyang style, and then Yan style or Zhao style. Once you have mastered both regular script and running script, you can write cursive script. Even if you write quickly, the writing speed of cursive script is still faster than regular script."
Fang Yun did not copy Ouyang Xun's calligraphy immediately, but first read and memorized Ouyang Xun's calligraphy theory, including "Secrets of Teaching", "Eight Secrets", "Theory of Using the Brush", etc. In terms of calligraphy education, Ouyang Xun should be the first among the four masters of regular script.
After studying Ouyang Xun's calligraphy theory, Fang Yun found that it seemed possible to use it to teach students. He recited it again and began to copy Ouyang Xun's "Jiucheng Palace", also known as "Jiucheng Palace Liquan Inscription".
After a while, the doorman came in and said outside the door: "Master, there are several scholars visiting outside, all of them are from famous families."
Fang Yun stopped writing and thought.
"When setting foot on the Holy Path, one should seize every minute. If I spend time socializing with these people, my progress will slow down. However, no matter how devoted I am to the Holy Path, I cannot completely ignore the ways of the world. For example, those high-level demons, although their IQs are not bad, their personalities and emotional quotients are terrible, and they often act recklessly out of passion."
Fang Yun thought for a moment and asked, "Which literary gathering in June is the most famous?"
The doorman was a native of Yuhai Prefecture. He was also a veteran soldier specially arranged by the military. He immediately said, "There are no major festivals in June, so there are no major poetry gatherings. Instead, the Liqiu Literary Meeting on the first day of July and the Qixi Literary Meeting on the seventh day of July are more important. The Qixi Literary Meeting is the most grand every year, comparable to the Dragon Boat Festival."
Fang Yun thought that the longer he postponed it, the better, so he said, "Just say that I'm not feeling well and can't see guests or go out recently. But I will participate in the Qixi literary gathering. I will talk about the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl with the writers of Yuhai Mansion."
"Yes, sir." The doorman turned and left.
Fang Yun was distracted for a moment, and continued to practice calligraphy. After finishing a part of "Jiucheng Palace", he began to read the classics of the saints, studying hard all the time.
At night, Fang Yun felt tired. He took a short rest and slowly recalled the process of climbing the Book Mountain in his mind.
"The four friends of the literati are music, chess, calligraphy and painting. I originally did not want to study them in depth, but the test in the illusion made me realize that although these are not holy ways, they have their own merits, just like poetry. In the past, the human race did not pay attention to poetry, but now we have to pay attention to it. The same is true for music, chess and painting. Besides, I got the guidance of the 'Literary Minister' in the illusion, and I have a thorough understanding of the classics and policy papers. Now all I need to do is to continue to write and accumulate experience, so that I can spare time to learn painting."
"Chess requires playing games, which is the most time-consuming. You can learn the zither and painting. I'll try painting first. If I have some talent, I'll paint a little. If not, forget it. Painting is divided into freehand and detailed. In Shengyuan Continent, detailed can attract the vitality of heaven and earth, so naturally I have to learn detailed. But if you become a great scholar, return to nature, and understand 'subtle words and great meanings', then you can also integrate it into freehand painting."
Thinking of the "subtle words and profound meaning", Fang Yun couldn't help but think of the "flying pages and empty boat".
"The great scholar can turn a piece of paper into a boat that can fly in the air by just writing the word 'boat'. It is truly miraculous. However, although the subtle words and great meanings are powerful, they have flaws. First, they need to be extracted from the true text of the great scholar. Writing them alone requires a strong force to carry them, because it is not just a word, but contains the thoughts of the great scholar. I don't know when I can use the subtle words and great meanings to kill people with one word and destroy cities with one article."
Fang Yun remembered what others had said about Li Wenying rushing into the Yangtze River with a great scholar's true text, and the words flew into the sky, which was extremely terrifying. He was moved and remembered that there was a great scholar's true text "Peach Blossom Spring" in the strange book world. Although it was a fragment, it must have profound meanings.
So he closed his eyes and entered the world of the strange book with his mind. Immediately, he saw a golden page of "Peach Blossom Spring" fragments appearing before him, with a total of ninety-one words.
Fang Yun looked at Tao Yuanming's handwritten work, recited it repeatedly, and finally his eyes fell on the word "boat" in "then leave the boat, from the mouth into".
A ship is bigger than a boat. A great scholar can write the word "boat" and it can carry people flying. To write the word "ship" is even more amazing.
Fang Yun stared at the word "boat" and tried to communicate with his mind in order to extract the word. Time passed slowly. After two quarters of an hour, the "boat" on the great scholar's true text suddenly moved slightly, as if it was about to fly out of the paper.
However, Fang Yun's talent was like a river bursting its banks, rushing madly into the word "boat". In just a blink of an eye, the two talents in his body were exhausted.
Fang Yun was shocked and hurriedly stopped extracting the real text. The word "boat" immediately returned to the fragment, but it seemed brighter than the other words. He hurriedly left the strange book world and entered the Wen Palace, and saw that his two talents had been exhausted and were slowly recovering under the influence of Wen Xin.
"It's just that my talent is exhausted, but I'm not injured. It seems that my strength is too low. I'd better not try subtle words or more sophisticated means."
Fang Yun wanted to continue studying, but he was exhausted and had no energy, so he had to sleep.
Early the next morning, Zhao Hongzhuang, dressed as a scholar, hurried to Fang's house.
Fang Yun and Yang Yuhuan were having dinner and looked at the handsome "young master" in surprise, but Nunu ignored them and grasped the duck's neck with his two little paws, eating with relish, making slight slurping sounds from time to time. He did not even let go of the smallest piece of meat, leaving only the clean bones, which reminded people of the magical skills of the butcher Ding in butchering an ox.
Zhao Hongzhuang said as she walked: "Don't go out these days."
"What's going on?" Fang Yun asked.
"Three days later, scholars from Qing will cross the river and compete with scholars from our country in Yuhai City. I was originally planning to go to Qing, but now I can't go."
Fang Yun's face darkened when he heard about the literary duel. If the competition between the two countries at the Dragon Boat Festival was a literary contest, then the literary duel was different.
Like literary competitions, literary duels are both upright means used by literati from all countries and are also rules recognized by the Holy Academy. Many literati who have grudges use literary duels to resolve them.
Literary competitions are just exchanges of ideas and basically will not hurt anyone, but literary duels are different. They are either a competition of poetry, a competition of talent, or a competition of literary courage. They are very dangerous and people often die.
"Are they here because of the mountain of books?" Fang Yun asked.
Zhao Hongzhuang sighed and said, "Think about it. Qing has won for seventeen consecutive years in order to suppress the literary reputation of Jing. Now they suddenly failed in this year's Dragon Boat Festival. How can they give up? As far as I know, after the failure of the Dragon Boat Festival, Qing will send people to Jing to compete with them. But they were supposed to wait until the Qixi Festival to suppress the writers of Yuhai Mansion first, and then compete with them to completely suppress the literary reputation of our country in the Dragon Boat Festival."
"The thousand-year agreement of non-war has ended. The monsters and barbarians are watching us covetously. Can't they wait to kill each other?" Fang Yun felt angry.
Zhao Hongzhuang said helplessly: "The grievances between the two countries are too deep. There are no less than a hundred people from the royal families of the two countries who died at the hands of the other side, not to mention those famous and wealthy families. Since literary competitions, literary duels and literary battles are the rules of the Holy Academy, we have no way to stop them if they want to use them."
Fang Yun couldn't help but think of that world. Even though technology was highly developed, and welfare, education, culture, and living standards were far higher than this era, wars still existed. Even though there was no real war between many major countries, they still provoked conflicts in other countries and used armaments, public opinion, trade, finance, and other aspects to fight without gunpowder smoke, which was very similar to the literary battle.
"That's true. This kind of thing can never be avoided." Fang Yun said.
Zhao Hongzhuang said with gratitude and pride: "However, the direct reason is that you won the first place in the Book Mountain, and the people of Qing Kingdom and Wu Kingdom performed extremely poorly in this Book Mountain, so Dong Sheng decided to reduce the Holy Courtyard items originally given to Qing Kingdom and Wu Kingdom by half, and give the reduced items to my Jing Kingdom. This means that the Holy Courtyard items that my Jing Kingdom received this year are ten times more than last year!"
"Did Jingguo get so little before?" Fang Yun asked.
"Yes, our Jing Kingdom is one of the weakest countries, and we have suffered repeated defeats. Naturally, we cannot compete with powerful countries such as Wu Kingdom and Qing Kingdom."
Fang Yun added: "Since this incident started because of me, then the main target of Qing Kingdom this time is me?"
"Yes. You have just become a scholar, you don't know how to write poetry, and your talent is not stable. They will definitely use literary competition to attack you!"
Fang Yun knew that he had been ordered to keep mum about his poetry contest. As for the extent of his talent, even a semi-saint might not know. Zhao Hongzhuang was naturally worried.
"Thank you for reminding me." Fang Yun smiled and looked at Zhao Hongzhuang's clear eyes.
Zhao Hongzhuang said seriously: "This is what I should do. If I don't come to remind you, I will be ashamed of Jingguo and the human race." (To be continued...)