The Path of the Sage

Chapter 174: Piano Club

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"Now that you are here, you don't have to worry about being assassinated. Not to mention that there is a great demon king in charge here. If you are attacked here, the East China Sea Dragon Clan will make the demon clan pay ten times the price." said General Lai.

"That's even better. Let's go to the place that sells musical instruments first." Fang Yun said.

"Yeah." Yang Yuhuan nodded.

Fang Yun glanced at Fang Daniu and found a pleading look in his eyes, then he winked in the direction of Xiaoying.

Fang Yun rolled his eyes at him and said to everyone, "Since Yinlong Pavilion is very safe, then everyone should go and look after their own things. Gather at the gate at midnight. If I am not back, you should go home first."

Fang Daniu secretly gave Fang Yun a thumbs up, and then looked like he was thanking the young master for his willingness to go through fire and water for him in the future.

Fang Yun held Yang Yuhuan's hand, asked about the direction of the zither treasures, and slowly walked towards there. Except for Mr. Pang and the deputy general, everyone else either stayed at the door or scattered around looking for things that interested them.

Everything in Yinlong Pavilion is very expensive, only the things in the grocery area are relatively cheap.

At this time, Yinlong Pavilion was like a small town, larger than any shopping mall Fang Yun had ever seen. On the way, someone was selling maps of Yinlong Pavilion. Fang Yun bought two copies, one for Yang Yuhuan and one for himself.

In just a hundred breaths, he memorized all the locations of Yinlong Pavilion and then handed the map to Nunu.

Fang Yun and Yang Yuhuan walked forward hand in hand. Nunu stood on Fang Yun's shoulder, holding the map and looking at it seriously, very seriously. After a while, she handed the map to Fang Yun and pointed at the dining area and cried.

Fang Yun took one look and lied to it, saying, "You held it upside down."

Nunu was stunned for a moment, nodded and hummed, then carefully turned the map over, looked at it carefully, blinked constantly, and finally looked at Fang Yun in confusion.

Yang Yuhuan couldn't help but chuckle when she saw the little fox's silly look. Her white pearly teeth were particularly eye-catching. Then she realized that she had lost her composure and quickly covered her mouth with her hands. She found that Fang Yun was staring at her with a look of liking, and she lowered her head in shame.

The little fox suddenly realized what was going on, and immediately used its head to gently butt Fang Yun's head, then cried, as if to say, "You are so bad! Nunu will not live anymore!"

Fang Yun smiled and reached out to gently scratch its neck. It immediately calmed down, squinting its eyes and enjoying itself comfortably.

There weren't many people at the door, but once you entered the shop area, it became lively.

Fang Yun occasionally spoke to Yang Yuhuan in a low voice, and spent most of his time looking around. The shops here were very neatly arranged, one row after another. The road between the two rows of shops was two meters wide and very wide, but the more you went in, the more people there were.

Fang Yun knew that, except for a few scholars, most people in Shengyuan Continent had limited forms of entertainment. Life was too monotonous, so many people would be extremely enthusiastic when encountering such festivals. If it were an era with a variety of entertainment forms, humans would gradually become indifferent to various festivals.

As they walked, a person came over and Yang Yuhuan was about to bump into him, so Fang Yun put his arm around Yang Yuhuan's waist and let her lean on him.

Yang Yuhuan looked up at Fang Yun in shame and shock. Although the customs of the Shengyuan Continent were relatively open, such intimacy was not a big deal, but few people would do this.

Fang Yun looked down into Yang Yuhuan's eyes and smiled slightly.

Yang Yuhuan clearly felt that there was a reassuring power in Fang Yun's gaze, but her heart was still pounding. She was afraid of being seen, so she quickly lowered her head.

Fang Yun didn't care about other people's opinions, as it was better than being squeezed by Yang Yuhuan.

Yang Yuhuan didn't dare to look up all the way, and followed Fang Yun silently. No matter what Fang Yun asked, she would answer with simple answers like "hmm".

Since today is Chinese Valentine's Day, people on the street didn't think there was anything unusual when they saw them. Instead, they were envious. A few lovers or couples even imitated them and leaned against each other.

Fang Yun kept looking at the shops on both sides and soon found that it was no wonder that there were so many people here. It turned out that the people selling things were not only from Yuhai City, but also from the entire Qing Kingdom. There were also merchants from many countries without coastlines, such as Wu Kingdom and Qi Kingdom in the west, including some wealthy families and even semi-saint families.

However, there are more idle ordinary businessmen, because it is completely free to open a shop here, you just need to sell something valuable.

As Fang Yun looked along the way, he saw two major categories of items. The first category was things used by scholars, such as the four treasures of the study, ancient books and paintings, book boxes, tables and chairs, etc. The second category was things from the monster and barbarian tribes, all kinds of fur, tendons, bones and blood.

The barbarians are better off, as only their heads and blood are valuable. The demons are miserable, as every part of their bodies is useful. Even if they are made into handicrafts, they are very popular among humans, because many people's relatives and friends have been harmed by the demons and they use them to vent their anger.

Fang Yun likes to watch these things because they can give him the most intuitive understanding of the world.

Soon, Fang Yun arrived at the Wenbao area. This was not an ordinary stall, but a row of houses and even some small squares. Many people were together, selling things or waiting for people to come and exchange.

There are very few people here, because many people's shops or doors have a transparent water door, and only talented people can bring others through.

Fang Yun's arm left Yang Yuhuan's waist, took her hand and looked around slowly, and soon came to a small open-air circular square.

There are many wooden racks outside the small square, on which are placed various kinds of precious zithers, more than a hundred in total. Some are new, some are old, and some are even incomplete, but each zither has a peculiar attraction. Even people who don't know much about zithers will feel that these zithers are extraordinary when they see them.

Several of the pianos exuded an extremely clear aura, which could be sensed by not only Fang Yun but even an ordinary person like Yang Yuhuan.

Especially the blood-colored long zither in the middle, the body of the zither is extremely long. The general zither is three feet six inches and five centimeters, which is the number of three hundred and sixty-five, but this zither is more than three inches longer than the ordinary zither, close to four feet.

Fang Yun immediately thought of a famous zither in Jing State called "Blood Mosquito". The name doesn't sound impressive, but it is a famous killing zither. Not only does it sound like a mosquito, but it can kill monsters and barbarians just like killing mosquitoes. This is a great scholar's treasure, and no one knows who it ended up in.

Fang Yun felt a strong murderous intent from it. This Qin must have killed at least tens of thousands of monsters to have such a terrible murderous intent.

Although other pianos have their own merits, none of them are as domineering as this one.

Fang Yun couldn't help but feel a little excited. The reason why he took up painting and playing the zither as minor subjects was precisely because these two subjects were extremely compatible with poetry!

Once poetry and painting are combined, their power will inevitably increase greatly, and many of the music in the Qindao are actually derived from poetry, songs and verses, or correspond to poetry, songs and verses. For example, "Feng Qiu Huang" is a piece of poetry and music that came from the same source.

This is not only the case in Shengyuan Continent. In the Tang Dynasty on Earth, the piano piece "Yangguan Sandie" originated from Wang Wei's famous poem, and the piano pieces "Guanshan Yue" and "Daoyi" originated from Li Bai's ancient poems. There are countless examples of this kind.

Fang Yun knew that the zither had a deep connection with Confucianism. Since the Song Dynasty, the most popular zither shape has been the "Zhongni style", and Confucius of Shengyuan Continent also designed the shape of the Yaoqin himself, which was also the "Zhongni style".

Confucius himself was a zither player, as clearly recorded in the "Records of the Grand Historian". When Confucius entered the demon world, he brought the number one killer zither, the "Hao Zhong", with him. When he played a tune, mountains and rivers of a hundred thousand miles collapsed.

Previously, Fang Yun wanted to learn painting first and then learn the zither, but he found that Yang Yuhuan had a talent for playing the zither and could use the zither to assist the zither player, so he had to master the art of playing the zither as soon as possible.

There were more than two hundred people standing or sitting in the center of the small square. Since the people in the outer circle were standing and the people in the inner circle were sitting, Fang Yun couldn't see how many people were inside, but it seemed that there were about thirty people sitting and the remaining one hundred or so were standing.

Most of those standing were young people, but there were also some older people, and even a man wearing Jinshi robes who stood obediently.

Fang Yun signaled Yang Yuhuan and Nunu not to speak, and slowly walked over, came behind the people standing there, and looked inside.

The people sitting inside were arranged in an arc. Except for two or three people in their early thirties, the rest were at least forty or fifty years old. Some of them were so old that they could only squint and did not even have the strength to open their eyes wide.

There were also several elderly men in scholar's clothes sitting there calmly, not feeling that there was anything wrong with sitting in front of so many Jinshi or Juren.

Fang Yun looked at the people sitting there and found seven or eight familiar faces, including one he saw at the Dragon Boat Festival celebration banquet and one he just met at the Chinese Valentine's Day poetry party. As for another acquaintance, Fang Yun couldn't help but smile slightly, while secretly shocked in his heart.

The person sitting in the middle who didn't even have the strength to open his eyes was the old man who helped Fang use painting to disguise himself.

Fang Yun originally guessed that this old man's painting skills were at least at the third level. Now it seems that this man's playing of the musical instrument is at least at the third level, otherwise he would not be able to sit there. He couldn't help but think of a legendary figure in Jing State.

The old man raised his eyelids slightly, looked at Fang Yun, then drooped them again, pretending not to know him.

Fang Yun also looked normal.

A luthier was explaining how to identify the age and quality of a piano by its sound. What he said was much more detailed than what Fang Yun had read in the book, and he also gave a lot of examples. Fang Yun immediately listened carefully.

Next, the musicians present explained how to identify the Yao Qin, mainly focusing on distinguishing its age and layers.

The zither is slightly different from other cultural treasures.

The power of all cultural treasures will be lost due to various factors. Once the time limit is reached, they will turn into ordinary items. If they are injected with talent again, it will be no different from injecting talent into new items.

The Wenbaoqin is different. Every time the power of the Wenbaoqin dissipates, it will be strengthened after the talent is injected again, and it will become stronger and stronger. The more talent is injected, the more powerful the Wenbaoqin will be. However, most Wenbaoqin can only withstand three injections, and more will cause the body of the qin to collapse.

Once the number of injections exceeds three times and reaches the fourth level or higher, the power of the Yaoqin will be greatly enhanced.

Both are Wen Baoqin, and they use the same talent to play war songs. The power of a double-layered qin is only 10% more than that of a single-layered qin, but the power of a quadruple-layered qin is exactly twice that of a single-layered qin!

If it weren't for the fact that zithers with a level of four or above are extremely rare, the status of zither would not be much lower than that of poetry.

It is already very demanding to use a Wenbaoqin to play war music, and the war music played on a quattrociosqin can compete with war poems, which greatly raises the threshold for the art of playing the qin.

However, every zither player who has mastered the art of zither to a high level and owns a famous zither is a great figure known across the ten countries. (To be continued...)