Rong Zhengqing slept in the next room, and he probably didn't notice Rong Xuan leaving in the middle of the night. After Rong Xuan climbed through the window and returned to the room, he changed his clothes and lay down on the bed to rest. He put his hands behind his head, opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling, and suddenly remembered the scene when he accidentally kissed Ji Fan just now, and a tingling feeling inexplicably rose in his heart.
Rong Xuan couldn't describe what the feeling was like, but it was strange, itchy, and subtle. He thought about it and lost all desire to sleep, so he could only cover his head with the quilt and force himself to sleep. Tomorrow, Princess Yannian will hold a martial arts competition to recruit a husband, which is a big event in the original novel, so he plans to watch the excitement.
The moon rises and the sun sets, and the morning light breaks.
The sky gradually showed a hint of paleness, and the red walls of the palace were still shrouded in a light morning mist.
Usually at this time of the day, there were few people on the streets of Shengjing City, and the people were still asleep. But perhaps because the princess was recruiting a consort, the Juxian Pavilion was crowded with swordsmen and rangers. Fengqiao Inn happened to be diagonally opposite, and the sound of the fighting was heard right across the street, and Rong Xuan was woken up before dawn.
He turned over and sat up from the bed, opened the window and looked out, only to see that there was still an endless stream of people fighting on the ring, with arms and legs flying everywhere. He thought to himself, these people are too fierce, fighting before daybreak
Rong Xuan prepared to watch the fun, and after packing up, he went directly to the next door to find Rong Zhengqing. As a result, as soon as he opened the door, he saw him leaning against the window watching the fight below, waking up earlier than him.
Never underestimate the temptation of fighting to a martial arts fanatic.
For example, now, Rong Zhengqing has put the matter of finding a wife behind his mind. He was watching the martial arts competition with great interest, and suddenly heard a movement behind him. He turned around and found that it was Rong Xuan. He immediately said with a fierce face: "Stinky boy, why did you wake up so late? It shows that you are lazy in sword practice every day!"
Rong Xuan was a night owl yesterday, so he naturally didn't get up as early as usual. He walked up to explain, "Dad, there were mice in my room yesterday, so I didn't sleep well, so I got up late."
Rong Zhengqing glanced at him and said, "So, you didn't sleep last night and ran around just to avoid mice?"
Rong Xuan paused when he heard this, and subconsciously looked at Rong Zhengqing, only to see that his eyes seemed to be able to see through people's hearts. The walls of the inn were not soundproof, and Rong Zhengqing was a master of the art, so any movement next door would naturally not be hidden from him. It seemed that Rong Xuan had seen all the movement of climbing the window yesterday.
Rong Xuan's brain started to work rapidly. He was thinking about what excuse to use to fool the man, but he was hit on the back of his head unexpectedly. Rong Zhengqing scolded him in his ear: "Tell me, did you go to a brothel to hang out?!"
Rong Zhengqing's idea was very simple. Rong Xuan grew up in a wild place. He suddenly came to the capital. It was hard to guarantee that he would not be dazzled by the world of pleasure. What good could he do by sneaking out in the middle of the night? He must be hanging out in a brothel.
Rong Xuan didn't expect Rong Zhengqing to judge others by himself, and thought he was really guessing Ji Fan. He was smart enough not to argue, and could only hold his nose and accept the blame: "Dad, I was wrong."
Rong Zhengqing snorted coldly: "With that little trick, you still want to deceive me?!"
He patted Rong Xuan's shoulder heavily after he finished speaking: "Come on, follow Dad to watch the martial arts competition! A real man should watch this kind of thing, the land of gentleness is a bone-cutting nest, that kind of shabby place!"
After he finished speaking, he grabbed Rong Xuan and left.
In fact, there were not only swordsmen and rangers at the arena outside the Juxian Pavilion, but also many common people watching the excitement. After all, the crown prince would probably come to the Juxian Pavilion in person today, and who wouldn't want to see the crown prince
Rong Xuan and Rong Zhengqing found a place to watch the duel. On the stage, they saw a strong man who was good at using a heavy sword fighting a young man who was using a cicada wing soft sword. They were one hard and one soft. The heavy sword could not hurt the light sword, and the light sword could not break the heavy sword. They happened to have two extremely opposite martial arts styles. For a while, no one could do anything to the other, and the stalemate had been going on for a long time.
Rong Zhengqing narrowed his eyes and watched for a long while, intending to test Rong Xuan: "Do you know what moves the man using the heavy sword has?"
Rong Xuan was originally looking at the beauty, but when he suddenly saw him asking a question, he subconsciously turned his gaze to the arena. He stared at the strong man for a few seconds and found that he had seen the right moves in the sword manual: "He is good at using heavy swords, and his style is barbaric, unlike the light and agile swords of the Great Zhou... like the warriors in Xiliang. He just used three moves, force blocking a thousand pounds, slashing the moon in the sky, and picking gold from the sand. These are the famous skills of the Xiliang Zuo family, a total of eighteen cuts. However, he has not mastered the essence, and should only be a fourth-rank outer disciple. If the Xiliang royal family is selecting a bride, they will never send such a person to the Juxian Pavilion to explore the way. He is dressed brightly, and he is probably just a retainer taken in by an official in the capital to guard the house."
Rong Zhengqing nodded in satisfaction after hearing this: "What about the person who uses the soft sword? Can he come and see him?"
Rong Xuan then stared at the man who used the soft sword for a while. He found that the opponent's long sword was very thin and soft. Once it was attacked, it would wrap around like a snake and he couldn't get rid of it. He immediately understood: "The long sword in his hand is tough and unbreakable. It is not damaged even when hit by a heavy sword. In the whole Great Zhou, only the Jiangling Chen family has such forging skills. This man's moves are elegant. He has mastered the Chen family's gentleman swords, such as "Shadow Following", "Dead Wood Cannot Be Carved", and "Chanting" the Wind and Moon. Although he is a fifth-grade sword, he is not inferior to the fourth-grade sword. It's a pity that his moves are too elegant and lack of sharpness. If he continues to fight with the opponent, he will soon be knocked off the ring."
Rong Xuan had an amazing memory, and he memorized all the sword manuals that Rong's mother had shown him. Little did he know that he could easily reveal other people's secret martial arts skills in just a few words, which was really shocking, and many people around him secretly looked over.
They were leaning against the fence of the pavilion to watch the excitement, and a carriage was quietly parked on the side of the road. Suddenly, a young man in brocade robes opened the curtain of the sedan chair and came out from inside. He put his hands on his hips, stared at Rong Xuan angrily and said, "That guy, what nonsense are you talking about? The Jiangling Chen family's swordsmanship is exquisite, how could they not beat that bearded man?!"
Rong Xuan looked in the direction of the voice and saw a rich young man. He smiled nonchalantly and said, "Sir, just treat me as talking nonsense. I am being rude and outspoken."
He never confronted anyone head-on. He wore a jade crown on his hair, a white robe with a loose belt, and looked elegant and scholarly. Taking the initiative to apologize would only make him feel uncomfortable.
The rich young man glanced at Rong Xuan, his eyes fell on the sword in his hand, and thinking of what he had just said, he frowned and asked suspiciously, "Are you also a swordsman?"
Hearing this, Rong Xuan looked down at the sword in his hand, casually swung it in a sword flower, hid it behind his back, and smiled: "It's just a decoration, not a swordsman's."
He has no intention of competing, so just keep a low profile.
The rich young man was about to say something when he heard a cry of surprise from the surroundings. It turned out that the man who used the soft sword was knocked off the ring because of exhaustion. He flew several meters away and vomited blood.
Seeing this, the wealthy young man jumped off the carriage and quickly stepped forward, shocked and angry: "Chen Suhe! How did you lose?!"
Chen Suhe struggled to get up, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and said with a guilty look: "Little Prince, I am incompetent and I lost half a move."
The crowd suddenly realized that this rich young man was actually Nalan Chun, the young prince of Ruling. It was said that he was stabbed in the buttocks by an assassin when he was hunting in Nanshan last time. Why didn't he stay at home to recover from the injury, but came back again
At this moment, the crowd suddenly made way for a path, and another young man in green shirt came over with a folding fan. He had thin cheekbones, thin eyebrows and small eyes, and a mean face. He was surrounded by numerous guards and looked very impressive. He was the new son of the Donglin Marquis adopted from a branch of the clan, named Liu Jianlai.
Liu Jianlai waved his fan slowly, and seemed to be having a hard time with the Prince of Ruling. He said sarcastically, "Nalan Chun, you dare to use those defeated soldiers under your command to embarrass yourself. Let them go back to their mother's womb and practice!"
When the Xiliang warrior saw him, he immediately stepped down from the ring, retreated behind Liu Jianlai, and respectfully called him "Young Marquis".
Obviously, this Xiliang warrior was a guard under Liu Jianlai, and Chen Suhe was a guard under Nalan Chun. However, the Ruling Palace and the Donglin Marquisate had never crossed paths, so why did they fight for no reason
Liu Jianlai was also very curious about this question. Nalan Chun was like a madman early this morning. He brought a large group of people to the gate of the mansion and asked for the name of Donglin Marquis. He said that Donglin Marquis was sent by the emperor to pacify the disaster and was not in the capital. He also targeted him and wanted to fight him for no reason. Whoever lost would kneel down and call him grandpa.
They were all the sons of aristocratic families who were rampant in the capital, so who could be afraid of whom? Liu Jianlai felt provoked and immediately agreed to the task. They agreed to have a duel outside the Juxian Pavilion, with one person from each side going up on stage to fight, and the winner would be decided in one round.
It is now clear that Nalan Chun loses.
Liu Jianlai sneered complacently: "Nalan Chun, your guards have already lost, why don't you kneel down and call me grandpa?"
Nalan Chun just heard the news yesterday that the assassination at Nanshan Hunting Ground was related to Donglin Hou. He thought of his injured butt and was so angry that his teeth itched: "Bah! Fuck you, my grandfather is a founding father, how dare I call him grandfather?! Liu bitch, if you have the guts, come on stage and fight me!"
If you can't deal with the Marquis of Donglin, can't you deal with this little bastard? !
After Nalan Chun finished speaking, he ignored the guards' attempts to stop him and rolled up his sleeves to climb onto the arena. Liu Jianlai was so angry that his face turned blue: "Nalan Chun! How dare you fuck my grandmother! I'll fuck all eighteen generations of my ancestors!"
Nalan Chun thought to himself, I not only fucked my grandma, I also dug up my ancestral graves at night: "My mother is Princess Changning, and she is from the same mother as the emperor. How dare you fuck my ancestors for eighteen generations, bitch Liu, you probably don't want to live, right?!"
Liu Jianlai choked when he heard this, and didn't know how to refute. Who made Nalan Chun a royal relative? He could scold his ancestors, but he couldn't. He was so angry that he rolled up his sleeves and climbed onto the arena: "Nalan Chun, if you have the guts, don't use your status to suppress others! Don't you want to fight? Fine, I'll fight you!"
These two actually started fighting.
Rong Xuan frowned slightly when he saw this, and couldn't help but fall into deep thought. He remembered that there was no such thing in the original book. Could it be that he had changed the course of history and produced a butterfly effect
While he was secretly wondering, Nalan Qing had already started fighting with Liu Jianlai. Both of them were average swordsmen, both at the lower ninth level of the sixth rank, but their weapons were exceptionally good. For a while, they were evenly matched, like chickens fighting each other.
Rong Zhengqing couldn't stand seeing weaklings fighting, and frowned tightly, "These two aren't fighting with swords, they're just fighting with cheapness! Their moves are useless, their strength is not enough, they'd better find a rock to hit themselves to death!"
Rong Xuan was about to signal him to calm down, but he saw that Liu Jianlai was no match for Nalan Qing and was knocked back two steps. His face darkened, his left hand grasped his right elbow inconspicuously, and his wide sleeves fell down, with something hidden in the black cuffs. With a sharp whoosh, the sound of breaking through the air was like a whistle, and three steel needles as thin as cow hair shot out from Liu Jianlai's sleeves and shot directly at Nalan Chun's knees!
Rong Xuan was the first to notice something was wrong. He kicked the gravel at his feet and hit it in the air, just blocking the three hidden weapons and returning to the original path. Liu Jianlai was caught off guard and was hit by his own poison needle in the chest. He immediately fell off the stage, covering his chest and spitting out a mouthful of black blood.
Upon seeing this, his guards rushed forward and helped the man up.
"Young Marquis! No, young Marquis!"
"The young marquis was poisoned by a needle. Who did it?!"
Nalan Qing hadn't reacted to what was happening yet, and stood there in bewilderment. He hadn't even made a move yet, so why did Liu Jianlai spit out blood
Marquis Donglin had already lost a son, and later adopted Liu Jian from his cousin. Naturally, he was reluctant to let anything go wrong with his only child, so the guards around him were all experts.
An old man with white hair and beard hit Liu Jianlai on the back with a palm, and used his internal force to force out the poison needle in his chest. Then he looked at Rong Xuan in the crowd with a sharp and cold gaze, "Who is it? How dare you hurt our young marquis!"
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw that the person he was attacking was a young man in white.
"A passer-by."
Rong Xuan faced everyone's gaze, confident and fearless. He raised his eyebrows slightly, turned the long sword in his hand, and pointed the tip of the scabbard directly at Liu Jianlai's sleeve. He asked in a stern voice, "There are seven laws and twelve rules in Juxian Pavilion. All the contestants on the stage are not allowed to carry any hidden weapons except swords. If they hit someone with a hidden arrow, they must cut off one of their arms. May I ask this young marquis, what is hidden in your sleeve?"
Upon hearing this, Liu Jianlai's face turned pale and blue, looking very ugly. He subconsciously hid his right hand, obviously feeling guilty.
Nalan Chun finally came to his senses after hearing this and angrily scolded, "How dare you, you little bastard, shoot me with a hidden arrow?!"
The white-bearded old man had already set his sights on Rong Xuan. With a sinister look in his eyes, he leaped up and struck Rong Xuan's forehead with his right hand in a claw shape, intending to take his life. The internal force in his hand was natural and had already reached the peak of the third rank!
Everyone was surprised and thought that Marquis Donglin was really generous. If a third-rank swordsman joined the army, he could be the commander of a battalion. But he directly appointed Liu Jianlai, this dandy boy, as his bodyguard. The young man in white might be in great danger!
However, something even more unexpected happened. Behind the young man in white stood a middle-aged man who had been watching the excitement. When he saw the old man with white beard coming, he flew over to meet him. The two men attacked with their palms, but the old man with white beard had no power to fight back. He was knocked to the ground by a palm, and countless dust was raised. He vomited blood and fainted.
"You dare to hurt my son? You're seeking death!"
Rong Zhengqing's eyes were wide open. He didn't even have a sword from beginning to end. He just used a lightning-fast palm to knock the man half to death.
The guards brought by Liu Jian were frightened silly.
The swordsmen and rangers watching were horrified and gasped. This man's martial arts were so powerful that he killed a third-rank swordsman with one move. When did Shengjing have such a powerful old monster? Was he a second-rank? Or...
First class? !!!
Rong Xuan had not expected Rong Zhengqing to suddenly attack, and was startled. But facing the inquiring and frightened eyes around him, he could only bite the bullet and pretend to be calm, and find an excuse for Rong Zhengqing's behavior just now, frowning lightly and saying: "It is wrong to hurt people with a hidden arrow, and it is even more wrong to hurt people with anger. These three needles and one palm are sent to you, learn a lesson."
After saying this, Rong Zhengqing gave him a look without leaving any trace, signaling him to leave with him immediately. Rong Zhengqing also felt that he was being reckless, and glared coldly at Liu Jianlai and the others, then turned around and left. He could be said to be a man who concealed his merits and fame.
Nalan Chun came back to his senses after seeing this, and thought to himself, could he have met some outsider? Seeing Rong Xuan and the others leaving, he finally reacted, pushed aside the servants around him, and hurriedly caught up.
"Sir, wait a minute! Sir, wait for me!"
Rong Xuan thought the voice sounded familiar, and subconsciously turned around to look, only to see Nalan Chun chasing after him, holding his buttocks, running out of breath: "Sir, wait for me! I... I can't run anymore..."
Rong Xuan looked him up and down, wondering why Nalan Chun was chasing him: "Young Master?"
Although Nalan Chun was arrogant and willful, that didn't mean he was stupid. Rong Xuan had great knowledge, and the martial arts of the man behind him were even more unfathomable. In addition, these two people saved his life, so he had to keep them here no matter what.
Nalan Chun clasped his fists and gave a martial arts salute, acting very casually: "Just now I was blind and did not recognize the great man, and I was a little offensive to you in my words, please forgive me. You just saved my life, I have no way to repay you, so I would like to prepare some wine as a reward."
It was not easy for Nalan Chun, who had not learned a lot, to come up with a few elegant words.
However, Rong Xuan refused: "It's just a small favor, no need to thank me."
Nalan Chun thought that he was indeed a man of character. He would win people over no matter what. Zhao Su was eager to recruit talents. Let's see how he would thank him later: "Sir, you just participated in the martial arts competition. Are you trying to participate in the marriage? But the nomination for the Juxian Pavilion has ended. Today at noon, the princess will start recruiting a prince consort on the fourth floor. All officials will gather. I am familiar with the prince, so I can reserve a position for you."
Rong Xuan still refused: "Thank you, but I have no intention of marrying the princess."
He is a non-marriageist.
Nalan Chun scratched his head: "The princess is as beautiful as a fairy, why are you not interested, sir?"
Rong Xuan could only find an excuse to decline. He was dressed elegantly in white and looked steady and self-possessed: "I already have a family."
As soon as he finished speaking, he was slapped on the back of his head unexpectedly. He could only curse: "What a shitty family you have, your wife ran away with someone else. Now you have a chance to marry the princess, why not?!"
Rong Xuan: “…”