The Path of the Sage

Chapter 73: Ode to Xingtian

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Under the starlight, eight ferocious fish monsters pounced over.

These fish monsters walked upright, holding bone forks in their hands. They were huge in size. The smallest one was two heads taller than an ordinary person, and the tallest one was even eight feet tall.

Some of the fish monsters are green in color, some have black and white patterns, and some are covered with thorns. They have huge heads, eyes as bright as torches, and when they open their mouths, they reveal a mouthful of sharp teeth, which is extremely terrifying.

The fish monster was screaming as it ran.

"Chiji ya ya ang ang ah ha..."

Fang Yun could only understand a few simple words, such as "human flesh" and "delicious".

Ma Yuan and Luo Tianqi have already started writing, both using the fastest-writing cursive script. The surrounding heaven and earth energy is drawn by the two men's talents and is sent onto paper along with their pens and ink.

Ma Yuan wrote Tao Yuanming's famous poem "Ode to Xingtian".

Fang Yun took a look and saw that Ma Yuan was just writing halfway.

"Jingwei carries a small piece of wood to fill the sea. Xingtian dances with his halberd and sword, his fierce ambition remains..."

Jingsheng spent his entire life filling up the sea, and Xingtian fought to the death without a head. The spirits of the two characters in "Classic of Mountains and Seas" are eternal and transformed into powerful and inspiring poems by Tao Yuanming.

When the poem was finished, it ignited without fire and turned into white light that fell into everyone's body.

Fang Yun immediately felt his fighting spirit rising, without the slightest fear in his heart. At the same time, his mind was clear. When he looked at the fish monster, some ways of attacking the fish monster's vital points and weaknesses kept flashing through his mind, as if he had inherited the fighting ability of the god of war Xingtian.

Luo Tianqi's "With You as My Comrade" has more words and has not been finished yet.

"Who says I have no clothes? I share my clothes with you. When the king raises his army, I will sharpen my spears and halberds. I share the same hatred with you..."

This poem from the Book of Songs was widely circulated. It tells the story of the Qin people's determination and scenes of jointly resisting the enemy. Its original name was "Wu Yi", but because there were two "Wu Yi" poems in the Book of Songs and this poem was an additional poem, the name "Wu Yi" was inappropriate, so it was renamed "With You, My Same Robe".

After completing "My Brother and I", Fang Yun immediately felt an invisible force surging into his clothes, making them tighter and more protective.

The iron armor on those soldiers was glowing with a faint cold light. The vitality of heaven and earth was infused into the armor. Ordinary monsters and ordinary weapons could no longer penetrate it. Only monster soldiers could penetrate the armor after multiple attacks.

However, the leading green fish demon soldier was not holding a bone fork, but a huge bone stick. It made a heavy sound as it dragged on the ground and plowed a deep mark on the ground.

The eyes of this green fish demon soldier are clearly black and white, but there is a clear blood-red ring on the edge of the whites of the eyes.

This is a sign that the demons have eaten humans!

"Archers, shoot at the monsters! Don't get hit by the bone stick, or you'll die! Team three will attack the green fish monster together! Team two will attack the black and white fish monsters, and team one will be in charge of the patterned monster soldiers. Don't write yet, wait, wait a little longer... Start writing!"

The fifteen archers ignored the three demon soldiers and instead shot at the five demons.

These archers were all elite soldiers of the government army, and none of them missed their targets, but some were deflected by the fish monster's scales, and some missed its vital points. One of the fish monsters was very unlucky, and an arrow hit its eye, piercing its brain and killing it on the spot.

The morale of the crowd was greatly boosted.

The other four demons looked frightened, slowed down their pace and hid behind the three demon soldiers.

Another round of arrows flew out, but all the sharp arrows were blocked by the fish scales of the demon soldiers.

Fifteen students worked together to write the only poem about killing the enemy that a scholar could write, "The Song of Jing Ke Assassinating Qin".

The wind is whistling and the Yi River is cold; the hero will never return once he leaves.

Explore the tiger's den and enter the dragon's palace, look up to the sky and exhale to create a white rainbow.

Fifteen Yuanqi assassins appeared beside the fifteen scholars. These assassins were like human-shaped black mist, some thick and some thin.

At this time, the eight-headed monster had already stepped within fifteen feet, which was the maximum distance of "The Song of the Assassination of Qin".

"Kill!" Ma Yuan gave an order, and fifteen mist-like assassins composed of the essence of heaven and earth rushed towards the three demon soldiers at a speed twice as fast as an ordinary person running at full speed.

The leading demon soldier seemed to have seen the Yuanqi assassins before. He smiled contemptuously and suddenly swung his stick, easily hitting the Yuanqi assassin in front. With a bang, the Yuanqi assassin exploded, the Yuanqi scattered, and disappeared completely.

But the first Yuanqi assassin was just a bait. Under the command of their master, the other four Yuanqi assassins bent down and rushed under the legs of the green fish demon soldier. Four daggers stabbed into the green fish demon soldier's left knee at the same time, and then they twisted it hard, causing blood to splatter.

“Ah…” The green fish demon soldier cried out in pain, and with a swing of his hand, he smashed a Yuanqi assassin to pieces with one stick. He then bent his knees and half-knelt on the ground, with his left leg completely disabled.

The scholars in Class One and Class Two also used the same tactics, either attacking the knees first, or attacking the ankles first, and then attacking other joints such as the elbows.

This is the experience summarized by humans over hundreds of years. First, weaken the monster's ability to move, and then use the speed of the Yuanqi Assassin to continuously create wounds. If you find an opportunity, stab the eyes, nostrils, mouth, gills and other parts. If there is no opportunity, continue to attack the weakest joints.

Mr. Wang shook his head. After all, these were students in the academy, not military scholars. Only powerful military scholars could control the Yuan Qi assassin to perfection. One person could kill these three demon soldiers.

Without the demon soldiers blocking them, the fifteen archers kept shooting arrows. These archers were strengthened by the power of "Changwu" and their aim became more accurate under the influence of "Song of Xingtian". They were not good at killing the demon soldiers, but they were very good at killing demon civilians at a close distance.

Fang Yun carefully observed all the scholars. After using the paper strategy, they immediately began to take deep breaths and keep their minds calm. Fang Yun knew that using talent would cause talent vibration. Only when the talent vibration of Wen Gong became smaller could the power of talent be mobilized again.

Apart from the literary mind which can quickly calm the shock of talent, one can only rely on one's own concentration and experience to calm it.

The three scholars each observed their own students, secretly memorizing the strengths and weaknesses of each student.

The four monsters were quickly hit in the vitals by the bows and arrows. Three of them died, and the third one lay on the ground dying. The archer's arm ached, so he began to rest.

The knee and ankle joints of the three demon soldiers were all broken, but their bodies were very strong. Even if they sat down, they killed all fifteen Yuanqi assassins. In the end, they even fearlessly used their arms to support their bodies and crawled here, cursing loudly in the demon language.

The five scholars of Class Three were the first to stabilize their talent shock, and once again used paper tactics to summon five vitality assassins.

"Soldiers attack!"

Three squads of the government troops began to move out, defending with swords and shields, stabbing with spears, harassing with bows and arrows, and sneak attacks with Yuan Qi assassins. Even though the three demon soldiers were extremely powerful, they were quickly killed.

Fang Yun frowned slightly. He had thought that it would be easy for fifteen scholars to kill three demon soldiers, but he did not expect it to be so complicated. Even though the demon soldiers were powerful, the role of the scholars would be very limited if they were killed in this way on the battlefield.

After killing all the monsters, the palace soldiers began to deal with the bodies, while the fifteen scholars discussed the gains and losses of the battle together.

After much discussion, two points were drawn. The first was that they were not soldiers after all, and their efficiency in killing the enemy was too low. The second was that there were too few war poems to show their talents. There was only one poem about killing the enemy, "The Song of the Jing Ke Assassinating Qin", and there was not a single "poem about strengthening the army".

Lu Yu said helplessly: "If the Juren took action, I would not need to recite poems about killing the enemy. Reciting a poem about the bow would increase the power of the fifteen archers' bows and arrows, and one arrow would be able to pierce the fish scales of the monster soldiers. But the Xiucai can use too few poems, and there are only a few of them. On the battlefield, the new recruits and scholars are basically just to fill in the gaps, and the real power of scholars can be displayed when they become Juren."

"Don't worry. As the Ten Kingdoms begin to pay attention to war poetry, in a few decades, there will surely be many war poems that can be used by scholars. Coming here to kill monsters is secondary. It is more important to go to the battlefield to hone our literary skills and minds."

"Alas, we finally have a genius who is as good as Yi Zhishi and has excellent poetry, but he is willing to be a lowly creature!"

"Don't mention him!" Mr. Wang said unhappily.

Fang Yun vaguely guessed who the bastard Lu Yu was talking about, but he didn't know much about that person's deeds.

While everyone was resting, Fang Yun pulled Lu Yu aside and asked, "Is the bastard you are talking about Feng Chengjue?"

"Besides him, who else can compare to Shang Yi Zhi Shi? Who else can be considered a lowly person? He doesn't want to be a good person, but insists on being a dog!"

"I've heard of him before, but I don't know the details. Tell me about him."

“Well, I’ll just tell you what I know. Feng Chengjue was quite pitiful when he was little. His village was attacked by dog barbarians, and he was taken as a slave by them. The dog barbarians who captured him were simply beasts. They treated him… treated him… treated him as that, cough cough, I won’t say more, you can understand it if you think about it. Later, the dog barbarian tribe was conquered, and he returned to the human race.”

"Three years later, he showed his genius. He passed the examinations for Tongsheng and Xiucai in the same year, Juren in the second year, and Jinshi in the third year. He finally became a Hanlin and one of the four great talents. Unfortunately, his childhood was too miserable, which caused problems in his brain. I don't know why he surrendered to the Demon Saint and became a rebellious scholar. Before he betrayed, he betrayed a great scholar, who died at the hands of the Demon Saint."

"It is said that Feng Chengjue is now a university scholar, commanding one-third of the rebel scholars. He often asks powerful demons to transform his body, and he likes to eat humans the most."

Fang Yun was surprised and asked, "There are still people like this?"

"Of course, he also openly declared that the human race is an inferior race, that the demons and barbarians are supreme, and that he hates all geniuses the most. By the way, you have to be careful. He has sent people to assassinate Yi Zhishi many times, and he will probably target you soon, so you have to be careful."

Fang Yun didn't expect that such a famous person would be a psychopath. He said, "He and Yi Zhishi are both one of the four great talents of the previous generation, but his literary rank is lower. He should be practicing hard and striving to become a great scholar. He won't pay attention to me, and I won't provoke him. You are overthinking."

"Humph, no one can tell what's wrong with that kind of lunatic."

After a quarter of an hour's rest, everyone set out again, traveling day and night to search for the monster.

It would have been difficult to find a monster in one night, but under Nunu's guidance, they killed thirty monsters in one night, which was equivalent to the efforts of the previous ten days.

Fang Yun even used a javelin to give a demon soldier the final blow.

On the way back to Lujia Town, everyone agreed that Fang Yun and Nunu were the ones who made the greatest contributions. Nunu was so happy that she kept jumping in Fang Yun's arms.