62. Money-hungry

Xuanyuan looked at the little thief carrying a bronze halberd on his shoulder, and at his back as he ran down the mountain in a panic on the rugged path. He suddenly felt that he seemed to have really recognized the wrong person.

The other party rolled up his sleeves and carried a bronze halberd like a shoulder pole.

How does this look like a warrior?

If Chen Ji was that person, even if the opponent was weaker than the giant halberd warrior, he could easily win with his natural fighting instincts. But now, this person can only flee across the mountain in a panic...

If that person were there, he would not run away no matter how powerful the enemy was.

Even if a towering mountain blocked his way, he would move it away.

But the one in front of me will take a detour.

At this moment, Chen Ji was panting while carrying the bronze halberd.

He turned back to investigate, and saw the giant halberd warrior running in the mountains, his black armor rustling as it rubbed against each other, his red cloak fluttering behind him, and his body as big as a chariot.

Chen Ji thought, this kind of fierce general is only one level higher than himself? Brother, you said a higher level, I am afraid it is not the difference between the acquired realm and the innate realm, right?

No, no.

If Si Cao was here, how would he have the chance to run away with the bronze halberd?

It doesn’t have to be the innate realm.

The two men walked down the mountain one after the other. Chen Ji, carrying the bronze halberd, ran slower and slower, and became more and more out of breath.

Xuanyuan's eyes became more and more disappointed.

However, at this moment, Chen Ji suddenly stopped panting and his steps were no longer heavy.

But he looked serious and turned around suddenly.

Chen Ji twisted his waist, turned around, and raised his hands, all in one smooth movement.

The bronze halberd in his hand stabbed behind him with the force of thunder.

The thrust came at just the right moment. The giant halberd warrior rushed forward, as if he were crashing into the tip of the halberd. The huge collision force was so strong that even armor could not withstand it.

The black armor was pierced by Chen Ji's halberd and penetrated into the abdomen of the giant halberd warrior.

Chen Ji heaved a sigh of relief, but Xuanyuan's mouth curled up slightly, as if jokingly: "In vain!"

The next moment, the giant halberd warrior didn't care about the injury in his abdomen at all. He held the sharp blade of the bronze halberd with both hands and pulled it out fearlessly.

But he saw his hands tremble slightly, and Chen Ji felt a huge force coming, which made his hands numb, and he couldn't help but let go of the hands holding the bronze halberd.

The giant halberd warrior let the blood gush out of his abdomen, raised the bronze halberd high, and then chopped it down vertically like a mountain falling down.

From beginning to end, the giant halberd warrior showed no pain on his face, not even a frown, as if being pierced in the abdomen was just a trivial matter.

"hiss……"

Chen Ji woke up in the small courtyard of the clinic, panting greedily.

"Another nightmare?" The prince asked curiously, "You've had several nightmares recently. From time to time, you encounter bad guys and get scared."

As he spoke, the prince saw Chen Ji's eyes.

The young apprentice clearly didn't even look at him, but he felt his heart tremble, as if a ferocious beast was breathing beside him, exhaling a strong smell of blood.

Liang Maoer walked out of the kitchen with the food. The white porridge was paired with hot and sour cabbage and pickles, which was light and delicious.

He looked at Chen Ji: "Eat first and then sleep."

Chen Ji shook his head and slowly closed his eyes: "I'm not hungry now, thank you!"

The prince came back to his senses and looked at Chen Ji carefully again, only to find that the other party was lying exhausted on the bamboo chair, which was nothing unusual.

I must have seen it wrong.

At this time, Chen Ji had returned to the battlefield again.

However, the giant halberd warrior was standing intact on the top of the green mountain and did not attack immediately.

Xuanyuan sat on a huge rock and looked at Chen Ji: "Did you learn your lesson?"

Chen Ji was silent.

Xuanyuan laughed and said, "You're definitely not the only one in this world who dares to be so cruel to me. Who among those who can charge into battle isn't a warrior who has crawled out of a pile of corpses? Facing a warrior like the Giant Halberd Warrior, relying solely on bravery and ruthlessness is useless. We've seen many such ruthless individuals.

You must learn to abandon all fancy ideas and master the true art of fighting."

Chen Ji pondered.

Real fighting skills?

Xuanyuan said calmly, "You asked me to teach you the art of swordsmanship, but you don't even have the ordinary fighting spirit and fighting spirit. Teaching you the art of swordsmanship is like putting a sharp sword that can cut hair in the hands of a child. It will not only hurt others, but also yourself."

Chen Ji nodded: "Let's start again."

Xuanyuan said, "This time, you must not run down this mountaintop. If you do, I will not teach you the ways of swordsmanship anymore."

Chen Ji was puzzled: "But in a fight, running away when you can't win is also a wise move!"

"You're much smarter than you used to be. While being smart is certainly a good thing, you can't just be smart." Xuanyuan sneered, "But there will always be mountains in this world that you can never get around. When that happens, you'll need some fighting spirit and courage."

Xuanyuan walked up to the giant halberd warrior and pointed his finger at his ribs: "Of the thirty-six vital points in the human body, the most important are the Taiyang acupoint, the Qimen acupoint, the Fengchi acupoint, and the Tanzhong acupoint..."

He showed Chen Ji his deadly skills one by one.

"If the point you thrust with your halberd had been an inch to the left, the Great Halberd Warrior wouldn't have been able to use his full strength. This is the difference between having fighting skills and not having them. Also, that halberd strike you just made, while impressive, was useless. Killing doesn't need to look good."

Chen Ji took a deep breath and said, "I understand."

He didn't know how many battles Xuanyuan had experienced, he only knew that this was the best teacher he could ever meet.

The giant halberd warrior did not wait any longer and attacked with his bronze halberd.

Chen Ji no longer fled, but just moved around on the top of the mountain, looking for a way to fight.

He stared intently at the direction where the bronze halberd was coming down, and then he slightly tilted his body to the right. He saw the bronze halberd passing by his face and coming down an inch from the tip of his nose.

Xuanyuan's eyes lit up.

However, before he could boast, he saw the giant halberd warrior flip his wrist, and the crescent blade of the bronze halberd turned and cut into Chen Ji's abdomen.

This bronze halberd was like a living thing in the hands of the giant halberd warrior. Although it was a heavy weapon, it became extremely tricky in the hands of the giant halberd warrior.

When Chen Ji returned to the top of the green hill, Xuanyuan's face darkened. "You dodged well just now, but why didn't you anticipate your opponent's other moves? Fighting is like playing chess; you have to think ten steps ahead. With equal strength, whoever can anticipate the enemy's moves will win."

Chen Ji nodded seriously: "I understand, let's do it again!"

He fought from morning to noon, and then from noon to night. He never won, but he became more serious and excited the more he fought.

He never counted how many times he died, but the more he died, the rougher and more direct his fighting style became.

It is like a steel billet being put into a furnace to be reshaped, and then forged into shape again and again with a heavy hammer to forge out all the impurities.

Chen Ji suddenly realized that the skills honed in this way, without any routines and without having to be performed for anyone, were closer to the essence of killing skills.

Xuanyuan watched Chen Ji fight again and again, as if he was tireless.

This young man didn't have the same fighting instinct as that guy, but he had the same fighting spirit.

Paranoia, obsession!

"Now I finally look a bit like you!"

In the evening, Chen Ji opened his eyes in the small courtyard of Taiping Medical Clinic.

Xuanyuan ordered him to rest for half an hour.

He slowly breathed a sigh of relief, as if he had returned from purgatory to the bustling world.

This time, he fought with the giant halberd warrior for an incense stick of time, and the two were evenly matched. When he woke up, he was extremely exhausted.

When Chen Ji looked up, he saw the prince, She Dengke, Liang Gou'er, and Liu Quxing playing Pai Gow at the dinner table.

Princess Baili and Liang Maoer were standing aside watching the battle.

There was a pile of copper coins in front of Liu Quxing, as well as a silver peanut that he had won from the prince.

Princess Baili looked at Chen Ji and said in surprise, "Oh, you're awake. Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?"

Chen Ji smiled and asked, "Why didn't the princess play with them?"

Bai Li shook his head: "I don't gamble, and my father doesn't allow me to gamble."

"Ah? Isn't the prince gambling?"

Bai Li smiled and said, "It's okay, I'll report him later!"

Chen Ji: "..., what a deep brother-sister love!"

He felt a pang of hunger, but before he could say anything, he heard several people from the underworld outside the door shouting, "Prince, Prince, prepare to go to Baiyi Lane."

The prince's eyes lit up. "Today is the day when Liu Xingshou from Qinhuai River comes to Luocheng. I heard that this Liu Xingshou is an expert in poetry, calligraphy, music, and chess, and he is also as beautiful as a fairy. We must go and see him."

Liang Gou'er clapped his hands and cheered. He hadn't drunk alcohol for several days and was having a bad craving for alcohol.

However, Princess Baili poured cold water on him: "Chen Ji is still injured. Now that everyone has left, who will take care of him? Brother, you keep saying you want to be friends with him. How can you treat your friend like this? Are you still a human being?"

The prince scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed.

Liu Su is a top star on the Qinhuai River in Jinling. How could she miss the opportunity to see her come to Luocheng today to cut the ribbon for the newly opened embroidery building in Baiyi Lane?

Liang Gou'er whispered, "Prince, why don't we go and leave Mao'er and the monarch to the clinic tonight."

The prince was a little embarrassed: "The money is with Baili!"

Liang Gou'er: ...

Chen Ji: ...

Sure enough, Bai Li is the real sponsor.

That's why the prince takes her with him wherever he goes.

The courtyard became quiet, and no one was in the mood to play Pai Gow.

For a moment, everyone was thinking about countermeasures.

Only Chen Ji could gather his strength and prepare to continue fighting on the battlefield.

At this time, Liang Gou'er, who was standing by, suggested, "Sir, why don't we take Chen Ji with us to look after him?"

Chen Ji: "..., I'm injured and can't go!"

The prince looked at Liang Gou'er and said, "Yes, he is injured on his chest and legs. He can't even carry himself."

Liang Gou'er had no bottom line in his pursuit of free wine, and immediately patted his chest and said, "Mao'er and I will carry his bamboo chair over, and after we finish drinking, we will bring it back for him."

Chen Ji: "You are really a talented person

As long as you can drink, you can do anything."

The next moment, Liang Gou'er called Liang Mao'er, lifted the bamboo chair and walked out the door, as if carrying a bamboo sedan chair.

Chen Ji sat up on the wobbly bamboo chair and said, "Let go. I don't want to go."

Liang Gou'er didn't care at all: "It's not up to you now, come with us. If you want to sleep, just lie down on the bamboo chair and don't worry, you won't fall. That's Baiyi Lane, that's Liu Xingshou, are you a gentleman? Are you not interested in such things?"

Chen Ji said helplessly: "I'm still injured."

The prince followed beside the bamboo chair and said, "I heard that it's not easy to meet with Liu Xingshou. You have to submit poems. Only if Liu Xingshou likes it will you be allowed in. Do you have any new poems written in the past two days? I'll buy them."

Chen Ji calmed down. He still had ninety-four taels of silver hidden in the cracks between the bricks under the bed, which was enough to buy three ginsengs at most and light six more fires.

But if you want to kill Si Cao, I'm afraid it's far from enough.

Chen Ji was silent for a moment. “I just stumbled upon a few more sentences. Maybe they’ll be useful.”

Princess Baili's eyes lit up, "Let's go to Baiyi Lane."

Everyone came to the door, where a group of people from the martial arts world were already waiting.

Each of them had a long sword and a long knife hanging on his waist.

When they saw Liang Gou'er and Liang Mao'er carrying Chen Ji, they were immediately surprised and whispered to each other, "Who is so majestic that Liang Gou'er and Liang Mao'er are carrying the sedan chair together?"

Chen Ji hurriedly smiled awkwardly and said, "It has nothing to do with me. I didn't want to go because of my leg injury, but Brother Liang Gou'er insisted on taking me to Baiyi Lane to broaden my horizons. I didn't ask him to carry the sedan chair."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Along the way, more than ten people were having fun and laughing.

The prince does not seem like a prince, but more like a playboy in the world who eats meat and drinks with big mouthfuls.

Chen Ji sat on a bamboo chair, and passers-by would glance at it from time to time.

He was not thick-skinned enough, so he simply closed his eyes and sank into the battlefield again, returning to the fight.

He felt that he was about to touch a threshold.

The Giant Halberd Warrior is not invincible.

The front door of the Embroidery Building in Baiyi Lane was filled with flower baskets, stretching for hundreds of meters and even occupying the gates of other houses.

On the spacious second-floor terrace of the Embroidery Building, wooden railings are hung with red silk, which looks particularly festive.

The owner of the embroidery building is named Zhang Chang. He is a little-known person, but some people say that he was once a servant in the second branch of the Xu family in Shanghai, which makes everyone look up to him.

The Xu family, the Xu family of Xu Gong, the chief minister of the cabinet.

Aristocratic families will not be affected by the sounds of Baiyi Lane, Hongyi Lane, and Qinhuai River, as they have a bad reputation.

But in private, they all have their own white gloves.

Everyone knows who is behind Zhang Chang, and it is a tacit understanding among everyone.

Therefore, as soon as the embroidery building opened, not only Liu Mingxian from the Liu family came to show his support, but also many children from aristocratic families came with their literary friends.

Some came to see Liu Xingshou, and some came to carry the sedan chair for the Xu family's business.

Everyone has their own thoughts.

In front of the embroidery building, two girls in plain white skirts and white mink coats stood prettily in the cool autumn breeze. They said to the visitors with a smile on their faces, "Dear gentlemen, we are welcoming guests tonight in the embroidery building. There are many elegant seats on the first floor, which are spacious and bright. But if you want to go upstairs to see my girls, you must have a poem to show. If my girls like you, you can bring three people with you. There is a table and writing brushes and ink in front of the door. Please come."

A young scholar immediately took up his pen at the desk, quickly wrote a poem and handed it to the two girls.

One of the girls ran upstairs with rice paper in hand. A moment later, she came back and said with a sweet smile, "Sir, my Liu Xingshou says your poem is not good."

This Liu Xingshou didn't give any face at all, and said no means no.

Not willing to be tactful at all.

The young scholar blushed with embarrassment and lowered his head to blend into the crowd.

After this test, many people who had no real ideas immediately decided to give up.

Outside the door, Liang Gou'er and other people from the martial arts world were murmuring to each other, not knowing how to get into the embroidered building.

Some say to climb in, some say to kill their way in, every one of them is serious.

At this point, the prince began to back down and whispered, "Bai Li, we only have half a poem, is that okay?"

Bai Li thought for a moment and said, "If she knows what she's talking about, this half sentence can be worth a hundred or so other people's poems. It's definitely going to work!"

Liang Gou'er came over and said, "But one poem can only be read by three people, and there are twelve of us here!"

After saying that, the prince and Princess Baili looked at Chen Ji who was sleeping on the bamboo chair.

"Chen Ji, wake up!"

No matter how the prince called him, Chen Ji did not wake up.

The prince was almost dying of anxiety, but there was nothing he could do. Without the poem, how could they get in?

At this time, Bai Li thought for a moment, took out a golden melon seed from his small purse, and put it into Chen Ji's palm.

Chen Ji opened his eyes: "I got it!"

End of this chapter.