More than thirty armored ox carts carrying more than four hundred people drove in the direction of the demon tribe's escape.
An Chengcai sat on the first-class ox cart, with his head down and no words. No one knew what he was thinking.
Except for Nunu who often glanced at him, everyone else was busy with their own things.
Mr. Wang said, "Recite the classics of the saints in your heart to nourish your spirit and restore your vitality. Fang Yun, you still don't know how to write poems, just remember to draw the bow and shoot arrows. County Magistrate He and General Chen are here. Our poems are far inferior to yours, so there is no need for you to do anything. If there is any danger, use the mountain inkstone to escape. Your life is more important than all of ours put together, do you understand?"
"I'll follow your instructions, sir." Fang Yun did not try to be stubborn. He could tell there was something else behind Mr. Wang's words and tried his best not to expose him.
An Chengcai raised his head and looked at Fang Yun, with a little respect and struggle in his eyes.
Fang Yun closed his eyes and silently read "Mencius" in his mind. Silently reading the classics of the saints can not only condense his talent, but also restore the consumed talent at a faster rate.
"My talent is like water. In terms of 'quality', it is no worse than that of a juren, but in terms of 'quantity', it is much worse, so it is impossible for me to write war poems at the level of a juren. I wonder if there is any power that can increase my current talent."
Fang Yun searched in the world of strange books and soon saw a sentence in a piece of unofficial history: With supreme literary mind, unparalleled talent, one can defeat eight.
"The phrase 'talented as great as eight dou' was originally used to praise Cao Zhi and Cao Zijian. The Cao family had three great talents, Cao Cao was the most famous, and Cao Zhi was the most talented, but they were killed by Cao Pi. But what does it mean to link 'talented as great as eight dou' with 'supreme literary mind'? Why is it 'one wins eight' instead of 'one against eight'?"
When his talent was restored, Fang Yun opened his eyes, saw Mr. Yu was idle, and asked in a low voice: "Mr. Yu, what is the supreme literary mind? What is the high talent?"
"Talented and talented is a way of praising Cao Zijian for having eight out of ten talents in the world. There is nothing special about him, and everyone knows it. As for the supreme literary mind, I have never heard of it either. Maybe there is one in the ninth mountain of books. However, I know that each literary mind is divided into upper, middle and lower grades. The most common literary mind is 'writing quickly'. It is said that those who get the lower grade can write a sentence in one breath, and those who get the upper grade can write a poem in one breath."
"Ah? So fast? Faster than the magic used by the demons." Fang Yun was surprised. He thought it would take a lot of time to write war poems. If he got a top-quality quick writing brush, a war poem would only take one second to finish. It was too fast.
Mr. Yu smiled and said, "You underestimate us humans and the saints. Writing furiously is just an ordinary literary mind. There are more magical ones, such as 'empty words' and 'falsehoods', which are extremely powerful! It's just that literary minds are hard to come by, and top literary minds are even harder to come by. But we all have high hopes for you. You won't be able to obtain a literary mind if you become a scholar and climb the mountain of books, but you will definitely get a literary mind if you become a juren and climb the mountain of books again! You are one of the candidates for the next four great talents!"
Fang Yun smiled modestly and said, "Don't say that. The Ten Kingdoms only give birth to four new talents every ten years, and every one of the four talents will become a great scholar as long as they are alive. I am not good enough."
"You can do it." Mr. Wang opened his eyes and said.
The others also nodded, but no one told the reason in front of outsiders: Since Fang Yun can now compose a poem about strengthening soldiers, he is not only one of the four great talents of the next generation, but also definitely one of the strongest candidates.
An Chengcai looked at Fang Yun with an expression that showed even more respect and a little shame.
Mr. Yu laughed and said, "I actually hope you can keep a low profile. What if you become too popular and rise to the top in two or three years, and push the last of the four great talents of our time down? That would be a joke, haha."
Everyone smiled. Although this kind of thing had never happened before, it would be very interesting if it did happen.
Only An Chengcai did not laugh.
Seeing An Chengcai was very nervous, Lu Yu persuaded him, "We have two Jinshi and nine Juren in total. One Jinshi and four Juren are officers with rich experience. They are capable of killing demon generals alone. Our enemy only has four demon generals. It is more than enough to kill them. The demon generals are just slightly stronger Juren. As for those demon soldiers and demon civilians, they are nothing at all."
An Chengcai lowered his head and said nothing.
Mr. Wang said, "Lu Yu, don't underestimate that demon turtle. It's as big as a house, and it's very likely to have condensed into a fake dragon ball. A fake dragon ball can hold a large river of water, just imagine how heavy it is. Once it hits, even a Jinshi would be crushed to death. General Chen didn't need to lead the army to kill the demon general himself, most likely because he was afraid that the demon turtle had a fake dragon ball. If it did, I'm afraid even he would need help."
"What's the use of fake dragon balls?" Fang Yun asked.
"If the fake dragon ball falls into the hands of our human race, there are two uses. One is to make it into a cultural treasure, preferably one related to water. For example, if it is injected into the "Canglangxing", the power will be at least doubled compared to ordinary cultural treasures, and it can be used continuously. As for the second, if it is eaten directly, you will not be afraid of wind and waves, and you can travel by dividing the water. It will also have some strange and magical uses. However, don't think about the fake dragon ball, think about how to save your life."
"Turtles have a very high status among fish monsters, second only to dragons. The most terrifying thing about monster turtles is that their shells are very hard. Once the monster blood is aroused, scholars of the same level will not be able to break through their defenses at all. Fortunately, Chen Xibi and County Magistrate He are both Jinshi. If nothing unexpected happens, they can slowly deplete the monster turtle's blood and energy and finally kill it. If it were a Juren, I'm afraid he would have killed it before the blood could be depleted." said Mr. Wang.
Mr. Yu said, "A single demon turtle with fake dragon bloodline is not scary. What's scary is that there are demons everywhere in this mountain. If the dragon turtle attracts a large number of demons, we will all die here. That's why even General Chen said that we will only chase it for one day. If we don't see the demons tomorrow morning, we will return."
"We won't be that unlucky, right?" Ning Zhiyuan whispered.
"There are many people who are more unlucky than us. Many talented scholars and candidates have had their palaces broken, their courage broken, or simply died because of bad luck. But with two Jinshi here, you don't have to worry too much."
"Anyway, we only kill the demon soldiers and civilians, and stay away from the demon turtle. Jinshi is not afraid of the demon turtle, but if the demon turtle goes crazy and kills us, Jinshi may not be able to stop it."
Everyone thought of the previous incident with the Mingqi bird and felt scared. If it weren’t for Fang Yun, they would have been wiped out.
"It's always better to be careful." Mr. Wang sighed and looked out of the car.
The demons left many traces along the way. Chen Xibi had rich combat experience and sped all the way.
A quarter of an hour later, all the ox carts slowed down because the demons had moved away from the main road and entered the undulating hills.
Although Bull A is extremely strong, it still has difficulty pulling people up the hill.
Chen Xibi Mingliang ordered everyone to get off the carts and start walking. He picked out six A-ox carts loaded with three days' worth of provisions and weapons. The driver picked out six A-ox carts and asked every six A-ox to pull one. When going uphill, someone pushed it, and when getting off, someone held it, so that the A-ox carts could be driven among the hills.
Everyone followed the traces of the demon tribe all the way and finally came to a large forest.
The trees in this forest are tall, the distances between them are small, and the ground is uneven. Even if ox cart A can pass through the forest, it will soon be shaken apart.
Everyone stopped in front of the forest and sent out a scout team first. Then Chen Xibi ordered everyone to bring two days' worth of dry food and wear complete weapons and armor.
Fang Yun chose the bow and arrow, and the other students all put on armor.
An Chengcai also chose a bow and arrow, and took a sharp dagger.
Most of the soldiers had armor on their upper bodies. Before they came, they were all blessed with the power of the marching poems, so they had no problem carrying hundreds of kilograms of weight.
Afterwards, Chen Xibi issued orders, deployed troops, asked everyone to pay attention to matters related to the forest battle, and finally emphasized the military order.
From now on, everyone here is a soldier.
The students of the State Academy of Arts also killed monsters before, but that was just training. At that time, they were still students, but now, they are soldiers!
The three Juren teachers were better off, but Fang Yun and the fifteen scholars had to force themselves to change their mindsets in order to adapt to this real military life. If they were not careful, they might be subject to military law. If they made serious mistakes, they would most likely be executed.
There is no such thing as saints in the army, only superiors and subordinates, and all you have to do is obey orders and kill the enemy.
The tall and dense treetops of the primeval forest block the sunlight, making the forest a little dark. The rotten leaves on the ground emit a musty smell, and the occasional poisonous insects or snakes and rats passing by will make people even more nervous.
More than four hundred people moved forward quickly.
General Chen Xibi and County Magistrate He walked in the front, with a sixth-rank lieutenant general on each side. The three teams formed a V-shape, with Fang Yun and other students in the middle, and behind them was a seventh-rank battalion commander leading the rear.
Fang Yun took a deep breath and looked around carefully. He no longer considered himself a student on trial, but rather a new recruit, observing how the veterans chose to walk, how to deal with poisonous insects, and how to maintain their physical strength.
Fang Yun discovered that, in addition to the civil officials of Mi County and the people from the State Academy of Literature, the government troops had a total of one Jinshi, four Juren and at least thirty Xiucai. This ratio was far higher than that of ordinary troops, and they were obviously selected elites.
The group chased all the way and before they knew it, night fell. At around seven o'clock in the evening, they rested for three quarters of an hour to eat, and then continued on their journey.
The forest was pitch black. Tongsheng or people of higher rank had good night vision and were not afraid of walking at night, but ordinary soldiers were not like that, so the team had to shrink. A lieutenant general held up a treasure inlaid with many luminous pearls. This treasure, which was originally used for underwater lighting, was also very effective here.
At nine o'clock in the evening, everyone found that the forest ahead was in a mess, with many huge trees broken, some places still had some poison, and there were hundreds of demon corpses. In addition to the fish demons, there were also many mountain demons among these corpses, indicating that the demon snake or demon turtle had summoned the mountain demons again.
Chen Xibi paused for a moment, carefully inspected the battle scene, and said with a serious expression that two more demon generals had joined, asking everyone to be careful, and then continued on their journey.
As Fang Yun walked, he recalled the map of Jiangzhou that he had seen when he was at the State Academy of Arts.
This should be Heiqu Mountain, a branch of Huangyao Mountain. The mountain is not very steep. If you walk further ahead, you will reach the top of the mountain and be able to see the Yangtze River.