Chapter 97: Gaining Insight into Moves

The morning light was faint, and the mist was cold.

Beside the steps in front of the courtyard, dew drops condensed on the banana leaves, about to fall but not yet falling.

The stone bricks under the eaves were clean, having just been wiped by a servant, without even a trace of water, and a tiger-skin cushion was laid out.

A man sat cross-legged on it, holding prayer beads in his hand, his eyes fixed on the banana leaves, seemingly wandering outside the world, happy and content.

"Uncle, just as you expected, that Zheng Hui is insidious and cunning, taking all those people back to his mansion yesterday."

Duan Rusu stood to the side and said hatefully, "These people ruined our big event. Today, after the imperial notices and those proclamations were posted, the wind we stirred up will soon be stirred into a mess."

The people of the Yuwen family were only active outside Wang Cheng before and had not really taken action against those targets inside the city.

According to their previous estimates, they should have waited at least until something happened to someone in the city before they could lead the monarch to enter.

At that time, the rumors among the people had already become a climate, and even if the monarch's attitude changed, rushing to enter might not easily overcome the rumors.

But the people of the Yuwen family actually suffered setbacks while still outside the city, and were exposed too early.

Zheng Hui was also sharp enough to persuade the monarch to enter at this time, immediately checking the momentum of the rumor spreading.

"When people do things, it is inevitable to encounter some variables, big or small."

The man said, "You just encountered a setback and were so angry. After a night, you still couldn't settle down, wasting your mind and damaging your energy, which is of no help. Listen to a scripture of peace of mind from me first."

"Namo, Heluo Dana, Duoluo Yeye, Puti Saduopo Ye, Mohe Saduopo Ye..."

This person is Duan Zhong. He looks to be in his forties, his skin is full and moist, and he looks even younger than Duan Rusu.

His black hair is like ink, his sword eyebrows and tiger eyes, his cheekbones are slightly high, and he has short whiskers on his chin, thick and neat.

With his figure and appearance, he has a majestic power in his gaze, but he wears light robes and a loose belt, and his voice is unhurried, showing a bit of warmth and elegance.

Duan Rusu saw that he really wanted to finish reading the whole scripture, and the corners of his mouth could not help but move, but he did not dare to interrupt.

"Sigh, if you don't calm your mind, how can your brain turn?"

Duan Zhong said, "Yimouxun has been suppressing my influence in the army, so I can't help but put my mind on military affairs recently."

"All affairs related to the Yuwen family were handed over to you to contact. It was to let you control them, not to let you also be contaminated with the habits of those assassins and spies."

"For them, failure to do things mostly means death, and you have only suffered this little setback, your foundation is not lost, your background is still there, what are you in a hurry for?"

Duan Zhong flicked the prayer beads with his fingers.

"The Yuwen family has a lot of influence, but the people sent out are not the best. Losing this batch of people is not necessarily a bad thing for our Duan family."

"Besides, we still have Tubo, which can be used as a helper. Tubo has already sent out a great priest and thirty-six great monks, who will come to help us."

Duan Rusu was both surprised and happy: "Tubo actually sent out such characters?!"

Looking at the whole of Tubo, great priests are also few and far between, basically responsible for presiding over the royal family's prayer ceremonies and protecting the safety of the royal family during some major events.

And those great monks are also one in ten thousand experts.

These people should be long-term residents of the capital.

Except for the time when the battle with the Tang army was most intense, I have heard of great priests following the army, but at other times, I have never heard of these people stepping out of the country.

"What do you think I have been doing meeting the Tubo people every year for the past few years?"

Duan Zhong said leisurely, "It is to let them see with their own eyes that the hearts of the people in Nanzhao are directed toward us, and to warn them of the consequences if Nanzhao falls to the Great Tang!"

"Even so, I spent several years, but I couldn't convince them to send these experts to help me seize the throne."

"But the Great Tang is sharpening its weapons, reorganizing its military equipment, and it is inevitable that they will raise an army this year to completely recover the lost territory."

"The situation is like this, and it is not up to the Tubo people not to make up their minds."

Duan Rusu was excited: "Good, when will they come? With the foot speed of these experts, it won't take long to get here. Once they arrive, we can take action."

"No, they still have to do another thing for us on the way."

Duan Zhong said, "We want to force Yimouxun and others to take action against our Duan family first."

Duan Rusu did not understand: "Uncle taught me military strategy and martial arts in the past, which is to seize the first opportunity. Why should we give up the first opportunity in vain this time?"

Duan Zhong stopped his prayer beads, his tone sank, and said: "Yimouxun was defeated that year, but in these years after expelling the Tubo garrison, he has done a good job in governing the people's livelihood, and some military generals in the army are also wavering."

"If we take action first, although we can suppress and purge these dissatisfied people afterwards, it is inevitable that we will damage our own generals. But if Yimouxun takes action against our most meritorious and famous general family first."

"We are forced to be helpless and ask the king to abdicate, which can naturally preserve more generals for our Nanzhao."

Duan Rusu understood and said with admiration: "Uncle has high insight!"

Duan Zhong glanced at him, seemingly smiling, but sighed secretly in his heart.

How can this be considered high insight? But if the nephew had more brains, he wouldn't have to explain it so clearly, and he should have understood it himself.

It is a pity that after Tubo conferred the title of "King Yi" on Duan Zhong, Duan Zhong felt his edge was too sharp, so he deliberately cultivated his nephews in the direction of being brave but not resourceful.

The former king of Nanzhao was therefore relatively at ease with his Duan family.

Duan Rusu, who was clearly a very scheming person when he was young, was the most optimistic among the nephews. He was ordered to pretend to be brave but not resourceful, and he had been pretending for so many years that he had pretended himself into it.

Is it really that if the brain is not moved for a long time, one will feel that not having a brain is more comfortable?

Duan Zhong sometimes recites the Heart-Calming Mantra, actually just wanting to use Buddhism to warn himself not to be too harsh on these stupid nephews.

As for the fact that Tubo deliberately added the title to alienate the monarch and ministers of Nanzhao that year.

Duan Zhong did not hold too much of a grudge, but felt that it was a kind of sophistication and style that a hegemon should have at that time.

Tang people were migrated and abducted, and although they made great contributions to the prosperity of Nanzhao.

But Duan Zhong has always felt that the Tang people's style of being proud of hegemony but hoping to use the holy way internally, to educate with benevolence, and to rest with the people, is a mediocre heart of indecision.

If you want to seek hegemony, it is naturally better to be purely hegemonic.

If hegemony does not know how to nourish the people, then plunder the people externally. Anyway, Tang people are particularly easy to use, and they are inexhaustible.

Wasn't the prosperous sign of Nanzhao during the former king's time also due to befriending Tubo, learning from its methods, and plundering the people?

However, after the An Lushan Rebellion, in order to cultivate national strength, Tubo has gradually banned the Chinese language in the occupied territories and promoted the Tubo script. This point is much better than what Nanzhao did.

The Great Tang is in a hurry to recover the lost territory, I am afraid there is also this reason.

When the Duan family sits firmly on the throne, there is still much to learn from Tubo.

Tap!

The dew on the banana leaves fell, becoming dry in the sun.

When the sun reached noon, the dark green banana leaves could reflect a luster, but by dusk, the bananas became cold.

The sun and moon are like floating boats in the clouds.

Rising and falling, falling and rising.

The bare locust tree, on another morning, was also full of dew.

Seeing Chu Tianshu sat cross-legged under the tree, back to the trunk, sword across his knees.

The blood on his fingertips drew patterns on the sword.

Blood as an offering, yin energy as a guide, that aura similar to the Spirit Realm rose from the surrounding soil, and even the cracks in the bricks and stones.

Light as thin mist, shallow white as silkworm silk.

The purity of these spiritual and subtle auras was vastly different from what he felt in the mass grave at the beginning.

Fine threads wrapped around the sword body, and after a while, they seemed to soak into the sword.

This is a very subtle feeling.

The Three-Seven Divine Sword could originally store a large amount of mental power, but that mental power seemed to be stored in a cavity inside the sword body.

And these spiritual and subtle auras are directly soaking into the material of the sword body, slowly nourishing and refining it.

After these days, although a soldier spirit has not yet been born in the sword, Seeing Chu Tianshu looks at this sword and can feel a kind of vividness from the visual sense more and more.

"Once your sword soul is achieved, I am afraid it will be stronger than my current blade soul."

Cheng Xiazi said, walking to the courtyard gate, his blade sheath pointing to the ground, and a food box in his other hand.

Seeing Chu Tianshu's nose moved slightly, opened his eyes, and smiled: "Is it the new pastries that Wen Jingniang has figured out again?"

"Yes."

Cheng Xiazi walked over, "She can't stay idle, saying that she just wants to take advantage of this time to figure out a few new dishes and new pastries, and is still thinking about using sugarcane to brew wine."

"Closing the door for a long time will definitely affect the business. When the restaurant reopens in the future, with new tricks, we can let the guests return."

Seeing Chu Tianshu took the food box and put it aside, uncovered it and took a look.

The yellow pastries made into the shape of carp were pleasing to the eye, and the smell was sweet, and there seemed to be a hint of wine.

"Dao Bai Shu chats with the guards in the mansion every day, thinking about compiling new stories, and that Lord Zheng is even busier, seemingly looking for more help to deal with the Duan family."

Cheng Xiazi sat down beside him, "Busy, busy is good."

Seeing Chu Tianshu smiled: "What are you pretending for? Two days ago, I saw you also helping with the wine brewing, but you said it as if you were very idle."

Cheng Xiazi leaned back, his two hands supporting the mud, his eyebrows shining in the sun, looking very lazy.

"I just feel that it is very different from the days when I was a soldier or hunting criminals everywhere."

"Don't you practice martial arts?"

Seeing Chu Tianshu wondered, "Helping with wine brewing, transporting vegetables, plus practicing martial arts yourself, there should be a lot of things to do."

Speaking of this, he suddenly thought that when he lived in the Wen family restaurant before, he had never seen Cheng Xiazi practice martial arts.

It was just that at that time, Cheng Xiazi went out early and returned late, going out to post notices to hunt criminals, running errands everywhere, and fighting with people, which could be considered a disguised form of practice.

So Seeing Chu Tianshu had not asked before.

"I focus on the method of gaining insight into moves."

Cheng Xiazi said, "No need to say, your sect must not have explained to you in detail the unique aspects of the move insight method."

Endurance method, move insight method, blood-refining method.

The endurance method is the most important foundation. Fist techniques, archery, and horsemanship are mainly to polish the body and improve physical strength.

The blood-refining method is the most miraculous kung fu, which can nourish a soldier spirit and possess the effect of supernatural powers.

The move insight method, however, has the highest threshold among the three.

It requires sufficient foundation in the other two, and then in a certain move, obtain an unspeakable insight.

Let the mind, body, and soldier spirit all be integrated at that moment, and exert it to the peak.

This kind of move is called move insight.

No words, man and blade as one.

Some people gain insight into moves in a desperate situation of life and death, some gain insight into moves in a dream after drinking at dusk.

Some people gain insight into moves at the moment of placing a piece on the chessboard, some gain insight into moves when resigning from office.

Once the move insight is successful, the connection between the person and the soldier spirit reaches the degree of hearts in perfect harmony.

At this time, the most important thing is no longer to practice fist and foot movements every day, but the constant resonance between the mind and the soldier spirit.

A person does not need to take blood, and it can be done naturally, using the waves of the mind to nourish the soldier spirit.

The soldier spirit will also naturally adjust the body's qi and blood, keeping people in the state that can only be obtained by practicing physical strength every day.

Moreover, if physical strength is practiced improperly, it may hurt the body, while the resonance adjustment of the soldier spirit will only be good for people.

Seeing Chu Tianshu felt a bit envious.

This move insight method sounds a bit like the feeling of understanding fist intent.

But in other worlds, just understanding fist intent does not have the effect of being in perfect harmony with one's own soldier spirit.

"For those who have embarked on the path of move insight, gaining insight into more moves is meaningful. Staring at some postures specifically for tempering the flesh and practicing them to death is of little use."

Cheng Xiazi took out a small wine bottle from the food box and took a sip.

"Like me, I think of the past whenever I drink, which is more beneficial to the soldier spirit. The more I drink, the more it urges qi and blood."

He said, as if finding a reason for himself, changing from sipping to swallowing, raising his head and drinking more than half a bottle, "However, it is not absolute."

"There is a saying that if you read a book a hundred times, its meaning will naturally appear."

"Some people have practiced a certain move too many times and embarked on the path of move insight. For such people, practicing old moves may help him gain insight into more moves."

"Such people, after gaining insight into moves, may practice more diligently than before."

Seeing Chu Tianshu could not help but ask: "Then what move did you gain insight into?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 98 =====

"After such a person gains insight into a technique, they might actually practice even more diligently than before."

Seeing Chu Tianshu couldn't help but ask, "Then what technique did you gain insight into?"

(End of chapter)