Chapter 425

One hundred ninety, Sword without a hilt, Letter from Luoyang

Ouyang Rong, who had completely sobered up, honestly sent Xie Lingjiang back to the Jingyi Courtyard.

Before parting, he spread his hands to hug her, but was pushed away.

However, just as he was about to leave in disappointment, he was pulled back by the Xiao Shimei, and they gnawed together.

It's just that someone's lips had another small broken-skin cut.

After the graceful beauty left, the carriage suddenly became empty, leaving only one person and one sword case.

The sword case and the craftsmanship inside didn't move at all, looking like dead objects.

After Ouyang Rong entered the carriage, his smile gradually faded.

He sat up straight, lowering his head to stare at the sword case.

Looking a bit stern.

The atmosphere was a bit deathly silent.

The little guy had never hoped so much that its master would ignore it, preferably trip and forget everything.

This death stare was quite scary.

I don't know if it was due to the bumping of the carriage or some other reason, but with a "creak", the sword case moved into the darkness under the seat, hiding most of its body...

Ouyang Rong hummed lightly and closed his eyes to rest.

After returning to the Huaiye Lane residence, he dismissed Zhen Shuyuan and Ye Weilai.

Inside the Yinbing Study, Ouyang Rong, who had been tired all day, walked in and tossed the sword case and several sachets onto the table.

"Clap—!"

It was mainly the sound made by the sword case.

The movement attracted the attention of the little guy on the highest shelf of the wardrobe nearby.

Miaosi poked out her little head, blinked curiously, and sized up the returning guest in the room.

She saw Ouyang Lianghan lying on the chair, eyelids lowered, looking calmly at the long zither box in front of him.

The long zither box lay quietly on the table, motionless.

It looked just like a child who had made a mistake, returning home in the adult's silence, also shutting its mouth, lowering its head, and remaining silent.

"Come out yourself." Ouyang Rong said crossly.

The Mohist sword case on the table didn't move.

"Playing dead is useless."

Ouyang Rong had a stern face:

"Giving you one chance to re-explain."

Still motionless.

From an outsider's perspective, Ouyang Rong seemed to be talking to himself to a dead object.

"Weren't you quite capable of reporting news just now? Why are you silent now? Knowing you are close to the Xiao Shimei, but to be sold by your own tripod sword, throughout the ages, I count as the first, quite an honor."

The Mohist sword case swayed slightly, as if defending something.

"What, you say you were just stuffy and ventilating?"

Ouyang Rong sneered:

"When is it not a good time to ventilate? You ventilate when the Xiao Shimei enters the carriage, you are just that restless? When you stole and hid other people's bellybands before, why didn't I see you ventilate and vibrate, notifying the Xiao Shimei to open it? You also know shame, huh.

"Now that I put a small sachet that doesn't take up space, you start rebelling and protesting? Did it attack you, or get in your way?"

Ouyang Rong became more and more unhappy as he spoke, leaned forward, and opened the Mohist sword case.

Just as he opened a slit, the craftsmanship "whooshed" and slipped out, escaping.

Ouyang Rong turned his head to look, finding that it had already hidden behind a certain Confucian-robed little Daoist nun who was peeking, trembling in mid-air.

Ouyang Rong frowned and walked over.

"It's useless to hide, come down, must teach you a good lesson today."

Miaosi looked back, glanced at the pitiful, weak, and helpless tripod sword behind her, spread her hands, and protected this new tripod sword prettily. She nodded very seriously and said:

"Ouyang Lianghan, for the sake of this Immortal Aunt, let it go this time, spare it once.

"Is this little guy just born? Not knowing better is normal, a little girl, don't be too harsh, besides, such full spirituality is rare, should cherish it.

"If there's anything, this Immortal Aunt will help you convey the education, don't scare her."

The arc vibrated slightly, making a light sound, as if expressing strong agreement.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Rong didn't give anyone face, pinched Miaosi's collar with two fingers, and placed her aside amidst her clawing and struggling.

"What kind of little cookie are you?"

Ouyang Rong clamped this clear blue arc with both hands, returned to the table, and sat down again.

He stuffed it into the innermost layer of the sword case.

His palm pressed down firmly.

"Face the wall and reflect first." He said deadpan.

The sword case vibrated and hummed, and soon the struggling sound fell, as if it were a wilted eggplant, listless.

Miaosi adjusted her Daoist hat, jumped onto the desk, sat on the sword case, and swung her two short legs:

"Knife mouth, tofu heart."

Saying this, her heels "thump-thump-thumped" against the wooden box body below, coaxing:

"Your master is just talking, faking anger, don't be afraid."

The sword case immediately quieted down, honest and obedient.

Ignoring Ouyang Rong who was frowning at her.

Miaosi held her chin with both hands, sized up the sachets he brought back on the table, and asked curiously:

"Ouyang Lianghan, your peach blossom luck is not shallow. So many sachets, can you wear them all?"

"Go away, you little girl knows a fart about peach blossom luck."

Someone who was in a bad mood today waved his hand and said crossly.

"This Immortal Aunt knows very well!"

Miaosi hugged her chest with both hands, tightening her little face:

"The books this Immortal Aunt has read are more than the salt you've eaten."

Ouyang Rong shook his head: "That's not necessarily true, I used to eat fine salt."

"You don't believe it?"

"Believe it, okay? Can you come down, I don't have time to chat with you now."

"No."

Miaosi shook her head, glanced at him sideways, her tone complaining:

"Every time you come home, you either bury your head in the desk or fall asleep, haven't come to find me for a long time, hurry up and say, have you grown tired of me?"

Ouyang Rong was speechless:

"Who did you learn this resentful woman tone from? Don't talk like this outside in the future, let others misunderstand."

"So what if they misunderstand... hehe, this Immortal Aunt just said she knows very well."

"You know, but can you come down."

"No, this Immortal Aunt just likes being on top."

Miaosi took the opportunity to raise the price, reaching out to demand:

"Give me a sachet, this Immortal Aunt wants to use it as a bed."

"Not giving."

"Why, reluctant?"

Miaosi jumped off the sword case, walked around the goose-yellow, orange-red, and lotus-white sachets on the table with her hands behind her back, clicking her tongue in wonder:

"How about this, you just say which one you like best, which one you feel relatively indifferent to, and give the indifferent one to this Immortal Aunt, this Immortal Aunt isn't picky."

"Teaching me how to do things?"

Miaosi was about to nod when she was flicked by a finger, let out an "ouch", and fell onto a stack of rice paper on the edge of the table.

The Confucian-robed little Daoist nun said dissatisfied: "You are really rude."

"Can you change the words."

"Then can you not be rude?"

"No."

"Then this Immortal Aunt can't either."

"Fine, just feel that this makes your belly have no ink."

"Originally had no ink, squeezed dry by you, let alone ink sticks, giving a sachet is also stingy, tomorrow this Immortal Aunt will go back to that Xie girl's place."

"Go, support."

"Ouyang Lianghan!" Miaosi widened her eyes: "You really don't want this Immortal Aunt anymore?"

"This is what you said yourself."

"Then fine, you have to give some compensation, this Immortal Aunt can't leave in vain, giving the position to other female demons for nothing."

Ouyang Rong couldn't be bothered to deal with her. Miaosi wandered around on the desk for a while, turned her head to look at the motionless, honest sword case:

"Ouyang Lianghan, what is the real name of this new tripod sword?"

"Craftsmanship."

"Craftsmanship... Craftsmanship Dao lineage... coincidence or intentional." Miaosi chewed for a while: "Interesting."

She asked again:

"It hasn't been out of the furnace for long, right. Doesn't that mean you are the first sword master?"

Ouyang Rong was noncommittal, asking back:

"So what if I'm the first sword master."

Miaosi was thoughtful:

"Generally, the first sword master is a sucker, without the efforts of predecessors, it's hard to find the tripod sword supernatural power..."

"Heh." He shook his head.

Miaosi immediately asked cautiously:

"Eh, this tone, so Ouyang Lianghan, you've explored the supernatural power of this tripod sword Craftsmanship?"

"Why ask so much."

"Curious."

"Then you tell me first, didn't you say you've seen other great sword immortals' followers? Who are they, you must know the whereabouts of some sword formulas, and what do other tripod swords look like?"

"Stingy ghost." Miaosi rolled her eyes and used an excuse: "Not telling, not telling, this Immortal Aunt won't tell either, suffocate you."

"As you wish."

Seeing that Ouyang Rong really stopped dealing with her topic, Miaosi tilted her head and took the initiative to say:

"This Craftsmanship doesn't look like a sword."

Ouyang Rong suddenly said: "Sword is not a sword, tripod is not a tripod."

Miaosi touched her chin:

"Sure enough, after that tripod sword came out of the furnace, these sword casters of the Craftsmanship Dao lineage became increasingly outrageous, the swords cast, one by one, all deviated from the standard sword shape."

"What do you mean?"

Ouyang Rong frowned, and immediately reacted and asked:

"After which tripod sword?

"And you mean to say, the tripod swords before it were all standard sword shapes?"

Miaosi neither nodded nor shook her head, whispering:

"That was a sword without a hilt, except for no hilt, actually they were all the same...

"After it, the further back, the more the tripod swords made by the sword casters lost their form.

"Now it's good, this Craftsmanship of yours, not only has no hilt, the sword body only has one... one arc surface?

"Tsk tsk, killing is really clean, the shapes of the first few tripod swords were too serious, good-looking is good-looking, but it still affected the killing power..."

Ouyang Rong was thoughtful and prepared to ask again.

Miaosi had already slipped away.

It was while he wasn't paying attention, she struggled to pick up a sachet and turned to run.

Looking closely, the one she snatched was the goose-yellow sachet.

"This one looks like a bad woman's smell, I'll help you deal with it, you still have to thank me."

Muttering, the little ink spirit held her "new bed", ran back to the wardrobe, closed the door to sleep, and entered the new quilt.

Ouyang Rong curled his lips, and no longer had the interest to teach a lesson to the little guy Craftsmanship.

He stuffed the remaining sachets into the sword case all at once.

"See if you don't burst."

Ouyang Rong patted the sword case with his big hand.

Hua Xuanji after, he placed the sword case properly and turned to go to sleep.

However, before falling asleep, Ouyang Rong closed his eyes and entered the Merit Tower, looking at the little wooden fish.

Merit: Three thousand eight hundred twenty-one

"Finally rose... thanks to Rong Zhen's side, and Ali, both contributed some merit. It was only two thousand something before."

Actually, the merit gained in these days wasn't just these two items, there were other scattered incomes.

Right now, he holds two major constructions: the Broken Wing Channel and the canal excavation at the Twin Peaks, and the future Donglin Great Buddha.

Although after completion, they generally don't appear to have a one-time surge too much.

But it is a long-term trickle, continuously entering the account.

Accumulating over time, naturally it's not a small amount.

Ouyang Rong has now made the trickle-like merit value contributed by these two constructions the automatic recovery for the little wooden fish.

In short, holding these two guaranteed ways to earn merit, and then brushing some merit from time to time, it's really quite cool, and the merit recovery isn't slow.

Ouyang Rong exhaled a long breath, exited the Merit Tower, and buried his head to sleep...

For Qin Ying's help in resolving the siege that day, Ouyang Rong had always wanted to find an opportunity to thank her.

It's just a pity that there was no time to meet in the following days.

Hua Xuanji, the return of an important matter attracted Ouyang Rong's full attention.

This evening, Xie Lingjiang came to the Huaiye Lane residence and had dinner with Ouyang Rong and Zhen Shuyuan.

Just as they took their seats, she suddenly took out an envelope and handed it to Ouyang Rong.

"Tanlang, Father's urgent letter."

"For me?"

"Mm."

Ouyang Rong took the letter, the wax seal was intact, he opened the envelope and browsed the letter paper.

Xie Lingjiang, Zhen Shuyuan, and Ye Weilai, Banshi, and other careful maidservants immediately saw Tanlang's brows frown first when reading the letter, then quickly smooth out, and he calmly folded the letter paper and handed it to Xie Lingjiang.

The latter immediately lowered her eyes and read the letter carefully.

A moment later.

"Another middle envoy? Sent by the Wei Empress." She frowned and said.

"Mm, according to Teacher, the matter of the extension, the Master and the others have already helped speak, and there is also a letter from the Empress's confidante, the colorful-robed female official Rong Zhen... this is already one of the best results under the efforts."

Ouyang Rong calmly picked up his rice bowl, lowered his head to shovel rice, and said vaguely:

"According to the Master, after the Empress received the news, she was a bit unhappy at first, later it might be because many people spoke, the Empress didn't say much, and specially sent a middle envoy to come and observe."

Xie Lingjiang frowned:

"Who is the middle envoy, do we know them?"

Ouyang Rong shook his head: "Still don't know."

"Fine."

Between the two, they fell into silence.

Until Xie Lingjiang put down her rice bowl and couldn't help but frown:

"According to past experience, middle envoys are generally served by eunuchs, don't know if the one coming this time is still Hu..."

"If it's Middle Envoy Hu, it's easy to talk." Ouyang Rong muttered to himself.

The two looked at each other silently...

Sure enough, not two days later, the Jiangzhou main hall received official documents from Luoyang, as well as the specific attitude of the imperial court.

The matter of the Donglin Great Buddha's three-month extension was agreed upon in principle by the Empress and the gentlemen of the Political Affairs Hall, but a private envoy of the Son of Heaven would be sent to understand the situation and assist in the construction of the Great Buddha.

Currently on the way here.

"Prefect, what does the Empress mean? Didn't she already agree? Why send someone over."

In the main hall, Yan Liulang asked with a frown.

"That's why I said, it's agreed in principle." Ouyang Rong sighed.

"This mid-way parachute, could it be that she doesn't trust us here?"

Yan Liulang couldn't help but ask.

Ouyang Rong lowered his eyes and didn't speak, his fingers tapping the table, thinking for a while, stood up, and prepared to go out.

"Where is the Prefect going?" Yan Liulang asked.

"Let's go, go to Lady Rong's place and ask, she might have also received the news, and might know more."

Ouyang Rong said without looking back.

(End of chapter)