Chapter 454

Two hundred forty-three, Born a Craftsman, Speaking Out Against Injustice

Prince Xunyang Prince's Mansion, study, after a long silence.

"This Prince is indeed ashamed of the Wang family mother and son, and ashamed of the people of Prince Xunyang."

Li Su Xian was silent for a long time before speaking with dry lips.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong shook his head:

"The reason I didn't stop the Prince from submitting the memorial that day was because of a sentence the Prince said."

"What sentence?" This Great Zhou Prince couldn't help but ask.

"If I don't submit a memorial to speak out, my heart will not be at peace."

Li Su Xian looked at him in a daze.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong's expression was calm as he spoke:

"The Prince also said at the time that he understood a little why I insisted on standing up to oppose it back then, even though Lin Cheng represented the Emperor's will, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong nodded and said:

"So I understand the Prince.

"Therefore, even if I sensed some risks, I only advised but did not stop the Prince, did not stop you all.

"Therefore, I also know that the Prince and Su Dalang have already done your best.

"At the very least, when asking your own conscience, you are worthy of it."

Li Su Guoer and Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang looked at the handsome young man with a serious expression in a daze.

Li Su Xian and Li Su Dalang exchanged a glance.

Li Su Dalang's tone was somewhat choked: "Tanlang..."

Li Su Xian took a deep breath and asked:

"Then what about Tanlang? Tanlang was so calm at the time. This Prince thought Tanlang had become disheartened after the last incident, thought Tanlang was also disappointed in us, feeling that we did not keep the promise of not letting those who carry firewood freeze to death in the wind and snow.

"These past few days that Tanlang hasn't come, this Prince has been very afraid..."

"Afraid of what?"

"Afraid of never seeing that Tanlang again, whose hot blood cannot be cooled by drinking ice, who carries firewood for the living."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong shook his head slowly and said:

"The Prince and Su Dalang indeed did not let me freeze to death in the wind and snow. Intercepting the memorial that day was, in a way, protecting me.

"Although I don't say thank you, I keep it in my heart."

Without waiting for the moved crowd to speak, he answered seriously:

"Prince, Su Dalang, my calm dissuasion that day was because among us, one side must always remain clear-headed. It's like drinking together; when returning dead drunk, there must always be one or two people who are clear-headed and calm, so as not to go down the wrong path.

"Last time, it was the Prince and Su Dalang who were awake and keeping watch; this time, it has to be me."

Li Su Guoer suddenly asked: "Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan, so regarding the Wang family incident this time, you actually didn't care as little as you appeared?"

Magistrate Ouyang Rong did not answer, his expression remaining the calm look he had worn since he was demoted to Yuan Sima, his lips tightly pursed.

Soon, he returned to the main business.

"Ru Shixiong, Prince, Sister Su Guoer, you say..."

Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang suddenly spoke.

"Is it possible that the Wang family incident this time is a trap set by Lin Cheng and the Wei clan, just waiting for Ru Shixiong to take the bait? But their plan was well-calculated, yet they didn't expect to encounter Ru Shixiong, who remained unmoved and calm."

The crowd fell into thought.

Li Su Guoer said thoughtfully:

"Sister Chenjun Xie means that Old Madam Wang and the third son Wang Yu were guided to do this? It wasn't an accidental event, and there is something fishy about it?"

Wei Mei also asked: "It's also possible that it wasn't Lin Cheng and the Wei clan behind it, but the rebels of the Restoration Army."

Hearing this, the crowd frowned.

"I don't quite agree with these guesses, at least I don't agree that Old Madam Wang and Wang Yu did this subjectively."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong shook his head and said:

"Perhaps they were used, perhaps they were guided, but no matter what the hidden truth is, it still doesn't change the respect we should have for them.

"Those two balls of fire cannot be fake."

The study was silent for a while, then they returned to the main business.

Li Su Guoer frowned and said:

"Looking at it now, even triggering the Wang family tragedy couldn't get Grandmother to dismiss Lin Cheng. It can be seen that the giant Buddha being built in Xingzi Ward has become Lin Cheng's golden medal for immunity.

"This person cast a golden body for Grandmother, and in turn, he also has a golden body. How should we break it now?"

The crowd fell into silence, their hopeful gazes cast more or less towards Magistrate Ouyang Rong.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong was silent for a long time.

Not long after, he stood up and, under the gazes of the crowd, strode away.

It wasn't that he was stumped.

It was just too noisy.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong had recently discovered that he had fallen into a very strange state.

The time was probably from when he refused to obey the imperial edict in front of everyone at the Prince Xunyang Ferry.

From time to time, he could hear a burst of sword ringing coming faintly from afar.

This sound was like the tireless cicada chirping in summer.

If one had to describe it, it was that buzzing sound of thin wings flapping continuously by one's ear, but it wasn't dull, and the tone had a bit of sharpness.

The sword ringing was sometimes loud, sometimes small.

It depended on the situation.

Like just now in the study of the Prince Xunyang Prince's Mansion, surrounded by people with worried expressions, Magistrate Ouyang Rong only felt as if ten thousand summer cicadas were chirping in his ears...

Magistrate Ouyang Rong initially suspected whether it was a sequela of Qi Refining from the one-third of the Six-Winged Summer Cicada's Transcendent Golden Pill he had swallowed.

But he soon ruled out this possibility. Why wasn't it there before, and suddenly it appeared? He hadn't done anything recently, and his cultivation progress had been stuck at Grade 8.

And the reason he was sure it was a sword ringing now...

Dark clouds covered the moon, Magistrate Ouyang Rong pushed the door and entered, walking into the master bedroom.

The first thing he saw was the curled-up small figure hugging her knees and daydreaming on the bed, her silver hair scattered on the vermilion bed sheet like white silk spun by spring silkworms.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?" he asked with an unexpected tone.

"Nu'er got up at night to pee, Tanlang wasn't there, came back and lay down... couldn't sleep anymore." She got off the bed, put on her shoes, and greeted him.

"I went out at night for something..." Magistrate Ouyang Rong waved his hand.

"Nu'er knows."

Ye Ye Weilai took the initiative to interrupt. She stood up, pecked his thin cheek quickly, turned around, trotted back, muttered "time to sleep," curled into the quilt, and closed her eyes obediently, not disturbing him.

"Did you hear it?"

Magistrate Ouyang Rong took off his coat and suddenly asked.

Ye Ye Weilai opened her blue eyes, showing confusion: "Ah, hear what? Did Tanlang say something just now?"

"It's nothing."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong was silent for a while and shook his head.

After soothing the little girl to sleep.

He turned back and walked to the wardrobe, opening the cabinet door.

A figure of a little Daoist nun in Confucian robes was sitting on a long zither box that had been shelved, her hands supporting her chin, her short legs swinging slightly, drowsy.

"Why are you a night owl too?"

Magistrate Ouyang Rong asked curiously, but his eyes were fixed on the zither box under her bottom.

"Waiting for someone."

"Waiting for whom?"

"You tell me who I'm waiting for!"

Miaosi said unhappily, originally drowsy, but now she was wide awake.

"Bring it here!"

She put on a straight face, emotionless, and reached out to demand.

"Bring what?" Magistrate Ouyang Rong was puzzled.

Miaosi didn't say a word, lowered her head to rummage through the small purse in her sleeve, wanting to take out the IOU evidence.

"Hey, how can one pick up a few pieces of high-quality Hanlei ink sticks even when walking at night? You look and see if they are yours, be careful not to drop them next time."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong nodded in realization, smiling as he took out seven Hanlei ink sticks he had swiped from the Prince Xunyang Prince's Mansion from his sleeve and handed them to her.

"That's more like it! Hehe."

The little ink spirit ate its midnight snack happily, glanced at him, and found Magistrate Ouyang Rong observing its eating manner intently. Miaosi moved her bottom, turned 180 degrees, turned her back to him, and continued eating ink.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong waited silently.

Because he was worried about arousing the suspicion of Rong Zhen and her subordinates, Magistrate Ouyang Rong and the others were not convenient to purchase Hanlei ink sticks with great fanfare.

The Prince Xunyang Prince's Mansion and the Xiao Shimei's side also purchased them regularly according to their needs.

So sometimes, Magistrate Ouyang Rong wasn't intentionally owing Miaosi ink sticks, but was truly unable to get so many Hanlei ink sticks to feed her.

A moment later, Miaosi burped.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong saw her take a stack of small slips of paper from her sleeve. The top few slips of this stack belonged to his handwriting, with words like "First Year of Tianyou" and other dates of owing ink sticks written on them.

Miaosi turned sideways to avoid his gaze, walked to the side, lowered her head to count her fingers, and pulled out two IOUs to tear them up.

He didn't know whose the other IOUs below were, or where so many IOUs came from.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong vaguely saw the words "First Year of Yixi" on one of the IOUs below. This was not a reign title used by Great Gan or Great Zhou.

Putting away this stack of small IOUs that were like aged wine, the petty ink spirit who loved to keep accounts and hold grudges patted her white hands, turned around, glanced at Magistrate Ouyang Rong who had withdrawn his gaze, hummed and hawed, and barely gave a compliment:

"Didn't raise Little Little Rongzi in vain, most filial, none other."

After speaking, the little Daoist nun in Confucian robes lowered her head and looked at the zither box under her bottom.

"Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan, is there some movement inside here?"

She changed from sitting to lying on the zither box, raised her two feet, supported her chin with her hands, and asked with a curious expression.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong pursed his lips: "You heard it?"

"Hear what? My ears didn't hear anything."

The little girl, a born spirit, shook her head, tapped her chin lightly with her index finger, and said:

"It's a feeling, I always feel it's strange, something is not right."

"What's not right?"

"How would this immortal maiden know? This is your sword, worry about it yourself. But this immortal maiden reminds you, every movement of the Mythical Xin Dingjian is not without reason, it needs extra attention."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong narrowed his eyes. A moment later, he also sent the little ink spirit with a strong sixth sense to sleep.

Closing the wardrobe, Magistrate Ouyang Rong embraced the sword case and walked towards the study.

He sat down in the darkness.

He opened the sword case.

Two fingers pinched out an 【Arc】 from it.

The clear blue halo flowed over his fingertips like water.

An arc surface, thin as a cicada's wing.

Dreamy and illusory.

At this moment, 【Arc】 was trembling slightly in the air.

The sword ringing in Magistrate Ouyang Rong's ears suddenly grew louder.

It was definitely it.

But Magistrate Ouyang Rong hadn't figured out exactly why.

And there was a strange point, which was that when he calmed down, the more excited and restless the people around him were, the louder the sword ringing in his ears became.

If he attended some casual poetry gatherings, his ears would be much quieter, and there would even be no sword ringing.

But if he was in that teahouse that day, or just now in the study of the Prince Xunyang Prince's Mansion.

With Li Su Xian, Xiao Shimei, and others surrounding him with different emotions, the sword ringing in his ears became louder.

Especially after this Wang family mother and son incident.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong stayed with them, even if he was very, very far from the sword case.

Even far away in the Prince's Mansion, the sword ringing in his ears continued.

It seemed to have a lot to say.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong always felt that in this burst of sword ringing, it seemed as if something was about to come out.

But it hadn't reached the point of coming out completely, like a melon falling when ripe.

This was also one of the reasons why Magistrate Ouyang Rong hadn't been to the Prince Xunyang Prince's Mansion much these days, was late and left early at the Jiangzhou Hall, indulged in poetry gatherings, and tried his best to stay away from official business and the crowd.

It was too noisy, he wanted to be quiet alone.

And a person with cicada chirping in his ears could also calm down more easily to observe the joys and sorrows of the outside world.

Under the moonlight, Magistrate Ouyang Rong held a lamp to look at the sword, listened silently to the cicadas, and murmured:

"Is it because you felt that 'Qi'? So, you are also not at peace? Wanting to speak..."

But, how can a Xin Dingjian speak?

Magistrate Ouyang Rong, at some moment, talked to himself:

"Sword Art... Sword Art..."

In a sense, the Xin Dingjian's Sword Art was its "spoken words."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong pursed his lips, and a moment later, he came back to his senses.

Looking at the sky, he first went to the Merit Tower.

Seeing that the merit above the little wooden fish was still over eight thousand, it hadn't risen much.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong left the Merit Tower and put away the 【Craftsman】 that had been abnormal for several days.

"Golden body, huh..."

Seeming to recall the difficult problem Li Su Guoer had thrown out not long ago, Magistrate Ouyang Rong pursed his lips.

After being promoted to Grade 8, his dantian capacity expanded and his spiritual energy became refined.

Facing enemies of the same Grade 7 as before, the sword deployment time for "Returning Home" was reduced by three breaths, requiring only twelve breaths... and if he waited for fifteen breaths, he could break the protective true Qi of a Grade 6 Qi Refining cultivator, endangering their life.

So facing Lin Cheng alone, as long as Magistrate Ouyang Rong could deploy the sword, he could break his Grade 6 true Qi and take his head directly.

However, Lin Cheng was cunning and it was difficult to give him the opportunity to deploy the sword. Moreover, Lin Cheng wouldn't fight Magistrate Ouyang Rong one-on-one and would definitely call for help.

It wouldn't be surprising if Rong Zhen helped him then, after all, in her eyes, the owner of Butterfly Loves Flowers was a common enemy.

But there was one point, his dantian spiritual energy was seriously insufficient.

Because he had been stuck at the beginning of Grade 8.

This was because of the lack of a complete Sword Art. He now only roughly understood the true meaning of "Craftsman" but couldn't summarize a complete Sword Art. And for other new Sword Arts, there were no clues to search for the time being.

So he stopped at the beginning of Grade 8.

Even with a Sword Art, for the advancement of spiritual energy cultivation, he still needed to imitate the Daoist lineage of the Fangshi of the Jade Chalice Female Immortal, set up a strange sacrificial ritual, collect mythical spirituality and heaven and earth spiritual energy, and impact these Qi Refining barriers.

The Sword Art and the ritual, two hard conditions, had blocked his current cultivation, making his dantian spiritual energy progress at a turtle's pace.

Up to now, all things considered, the dantian at the beginning of Grade 8, without calling upon the purple fog of merit, could only kill one Grade 6 Qi Refining cultivator with a full fifteen-breath sword deployment.

As for the Xin Dingjian's divine ability of 【Craftsman】, "Origin Arising from Emptiness."

This was not Mount Mount Dagu, and the only thing that could be mobilized to the greatest extent was his own poetic literary Qi, but it was of little use.

Because his own literary Qi had a weakness: each poem was outside the body, and communicating and mobilizing them was very slow. Using literary Qi poem by poem required time.

And for sword deployment, the most scarce thing was time.

It was best to have a continuous fifteen breaths, so dantian spiritual energy and purple fog of merit were the most convenient fuel for the Xin Dingjian.

Back then in the old courtyard of Huang Meilu Xuan's house, the reason he could use the red leaves of literary Qi to kill Yan Zhang and others was precisely because they were all in the formation of the Pool Moon Array, unable to withdraw the formation for a while, and had no spiritual energy cultivation to stop him, who held a great killing weapon...

Literary Qi and his own "not at peace" Qi were similar, only suitable as the last straw when at the end of his rope.

Finally, there was one more problem.

Lin Cheng's "golden body" was not just his actual cultivation defense and help from accomplices, but also the imperial favor and tolerance of the Great Zhou Empress.

The latter was the hardest to break...

【Craftsman】 had already been returned to the case.

In the dark study, it was silent.

The young man in front of the table supported his chin, as if listening silently to the cicadas.

The next day.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong came to the Jiangzhou Hall.

Before he could sit down warmly.

"Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan, come out for a moment."

A cold, palace-dressed young girl figure suddenly arrived, calling him to go out.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong glanced at her. This Female Historian Rong Zhen had a straight face, and there was a faint, indescribable melancholy under her eyes.

He followed silently.

"Have you eaten?"

"Eaten... haven't eaten."

"Let's go, eat something, the usual place."

"Okay."

The two of them didn't waste words, walking out one after the other.

(End of chapter)