Chapter 180 The More Pressure, the Less Pressure (Two in One)
A man's reputation is like the shadow of a tree.
Ever since Gu Fangchen made it onto the Xiaotian Ranking, the discussion about this matter has remained high among the younger generation.
What's more, the unexpected outcome of the true and false prince has made Gu Fangchen himself more of a hot topic.
If Dawei had Weibo, then the name Gu Fangchen would have been at the top of the trending searches for a long time...
Regarding Gu Fangchen's sudden turnaround in strength and reputation, some people admire him, some question him, and some even have conspiracy theories.
The changes in the top ten of the Xiaotian Ranking already involved many people, and the fact that Gu Fangchen himself was full of controversy was like adding fuel to the fire.
What practitioners seek is either fame and fortune, or enlightenment.
Both of these points can be achieved by appearing on the big and small Tianbang lists. There is no need to say much about the former, and for the latter, one often has to look for targets on the list to challenge.
If you are brave enough and confident in your own abilities, you can even challenge your way up the rankings.
Therefore, when it comes to Gu Fangchen's appearance on the list, what has attracted much attention is not only him himself, but also the attitudes of those who were squeezed out by him.
Especially the unlucky guy who was originally ranked tenth.
This unlucky fellow was called Wang Mingzhi, who happened to be the leader of the younger generation of the Jiangnan Wang family. With a cultivation level at the peak of the sixth rank, he had just surpassed Gu Lianxian and was ranked tenth.
The Wang family is the second most powerful family after Dugu, and should not be underestimated.
Compared with the immortal sects that occupy land as their own but disdain to associate with the secular world, the development of the aristocratic families is more down-to-earth. In the four words "wealth, companions, law and land", they have taken the words "wealth" and "companion" to the extreme.
The aristocratic family controls the Chamber of Commerce, which has countless restaurants and shops under its jurisdiction, serving not only ordinary people but also practitioners.
Since we are doing business, advertising is inevitable.
The most suitable people to help with advertising are naturally the masters among the younger generation of their family.
If you just say where the sword he uses or the clothes he wears come from, a large number of people will immediately rush to imitate him.
But unfortunately, their family is indeed lacking in terms of hard power.
Dugu Xian, the strongest among the younger generation, is only ranked third on the Xiaotian list, below Xiao Yinghao and Gu Youren.
The Wang family only has one heir, Wang Mingzhi, and among all their operations, they are only ranked tenth.
It should be noted that in any ranking, people will only remember the top ten.
I can’t compete for the top three, but I have to at least keep the tenth place, right?
As a result, Gu Fangchen suddenly appeared and pushed Wang Mingzhi to eleventh place. Overnight, even the Wang family's business was hit hard.
Cutting off someone's source of income is like killing their parents!
When the Wang family received the news, they almost immediately supported Gu Yuandao and denounced Gu Fangchen, believing that he must have used elixirs or secret techniques to achieve such rapid progress in his cultivation.
It was said openly and secretly that he colluded with the devil's cult and used the devil's evil methods.
But not long after, it was revealed that Gu Yuandao was the one who colluded with the Demon Cult, and he was taken away by the saint to reflect on his mistakes!
This time the Wang family shot themselves in the foot, and their business plummeted.
Now, if the Wang family wants to turn things around, they have no choice but to defeat Gu Fangchen head-on and prove that he is just a show-off.
Although practitioners also recognize other things, the ultimate recognition is strength.
Wang Ming's fist is strong enough, so other factors are secondary...
However, the problem is that although Gu Fangchen’s battle record is unknown, the quasi-first-grade sword in his hand is not fake!
There are even rumors claiming that Gu Fangchen is actually a disciple of the Martial Saint, but this news was previously suppressed by the palace.
Martial Saint Ding Xingfeng showed up at the Ziji Hall at the celebration banquet that day to support his disciples!
As a result, Wang Mingzhi's chances of winning are even worse, and even taking medicine is a risk...
Therefore, the Wang family took a gamble and decided to poison Gu Fangchen!
…
"How many of you are here?"
The servants of the Dugu family were talking among themselves, looking at the martial arts training ground in the center.
At the top is Dugu Xia, the current head of the Dugu family, who is also Ning Caiyong’s uncle and Gu Fangchen’s great-uncle.
Sitting next to him was Ning Caiyong, who was wearing a veil and an intricate red dress. He looked extremely elegant and graceful, and exuded a hint of majesty in front of outsiders.
Although Ning Caiyong is a junior, as a princess, her status is equal to Dugu Xia.
Next to Ning Caiyong was "Gu Fangchen", who moved a chair, fanned himself with a folding fan, and sat in an arrogant manner.
This is actually the illusion created by the "mirage array".
However, ordinary illusions are not so vivid.
Just like the illusion of Lao Ding and Qing Jian that Gu Fangchen created at the Qionglin Banquet, they couldn't even speak, otherwise they would be exposed soon.
To be on the safe side, Gu Fangchen left a trace of his own spiritual thoughts and artistic conception in this "mirage formation", so that the illusion was also controlled by his thoughts and could be exactly the same as him.
As a sixth-grade cultivator, separating his spiritual thoughts does not affect his true body.
With his current spiritual strength, he can definitely do two things at the same time.
However, this means that the requirements for the "mirage array" are higher, and it is no longer a disposable item like before.
Therefore, Gu Fangchen chose a string of bracelets worn by Ning Caiyong as the object of attachment for the "Mirage Array".
As the Princess of Zhenbei, Ning Caiyong's belongings are basically all top-grade spellcasting materials.
Gu Fangchen engraved "Mirage Array" on the bracelet, which enhanced the strength of the illusion and could also carry a wisp of his divine consciousness.
But the bad thing is that Illusion must be with Ning Caiyong at all times. To outsiders, they basically go in and out together. Although they only live in the same courtyard, they still seem very close.
However, Gu Fangchen and Ning Caiyong were basically in the same situation before.
Before he was sixteen, he even often lived in Ning Caiyong's yard.
It was only in the past two years, because of repeated mistakes, that there was some estrangement between him and Ning Caiyong, and they were not as close as before.
To outsiders, this was nothing more than another piece of evidence of Gu Fangchen's previous concealment of his incompetence.
The princess was probably also an "accomplice" who helped Gu Fangchen hide. She had deliberately distanced herself from him before to relax Gu Yuye's vigilance. This guy was indeed very scheming!
No wonder he could deceive the "Military Saint"!
Gu Fangchen narrowed his eyes and looked at the training ground in the middle.
Xuexiang, who was standing next to him, took a round fan and carefully fanned the Crown Prince, remembering to remind him not to touch the phantom's body.
In the eyes of others, it seemed that even Gu Fangchen's own personal maid was a little afraid of this guy, fearing that she would not serve him well enough. She even had to be very careful with the strength when fanning him, fearing that she would fan him too hard or too soft!
Sitting below in order were the younger generation of the current Dugu family, including Dugu Yue and Dugu Wei.
Dugu Yue also held a folding fan in her hand, but the words on it were much more beautiful than Gu Fangchen's dog-crawling words.
The four words "bright wind and clear moon" are written on it, and it is accompanied by a picture of bamboo in ink, which is very elegant.
Coupled with Dugu Yue's appearance and figure that are the embodiment of a gentleman, anyone who sees him will praise him as "what a true gentleman."
Dugu Yue turned her gaze to the side and it fell on Gu Fangchen, especially the fan in his hand. A hint of contempt flashed in her eyes, which were still smiling gently.
He is pretentious but unwilling to put in any effort.
This handwriting is not even as good as the three-year-old child of their Dugu family!
Look at the little beauty next to him. You can tell she is often bullied by this guy. She looks so pitiful and I don’t know how much she has suffered!
I've heard for a long time that Gu Fangchen is cruel and perverted in his treatment of women, and he has no idea what it means to be gentle and considerate to women.
Zhu Xiuxiu, the most popular courtesan in Huangtian City's Jiaofang Bureau, was originally redeemed by him and wanted to return to her hometown in Gusu.
Unexpectedly, Gu Fangchen was setting a trap on purpose. He caught up with Zhu Xiuxiu's carriage on the road, stopped it directly, brought her here together, and continued to treat her as a forbidden delicacy. Now she is imprisoned in the room and not allowed to come out.
It's totally a cat playing with mouse.
Furthermore, his servants saw with their own eyes that when Zhu Xiuxiu got off Gu Fangchen's car, she was barely breathing and her body was as light as floating snowflakes, as if she had been extremely frightened and was at a loss, and as weak as if she had suffered a serious illness.
It can be seen how cruel Gu Fangchen is!
Along the way, it is inevitable to torture the people around you.
Such a poor little beauty... falling into the hands of this prince, it's really a waste of talent!
It would be better to keep it in my own hands. After all, I have at least had a tender moment with it...
The Wang family can just test this guy's true strength. If he is strong on the outside but weak on the inside, this is not the Zhenbei Palace where he can call the wind and rain and do whatever he wants!
Dugu Yue's eyes darkened. She just waved the fan in her hand, trying to divert her gaze, when she met Gu Fangchen's half-smile.
“!”
He was shocked and almost lost his composure.
How could this happen?!
Isn't this guy a pure martial artist? He is a sixth-rank martial artist, and everyone knows him. How could he sense the gaze of a fourth-rank divine being?
The Shinto monks are at a higher level than the martial arts monks, so the shielding of their perception can be said to be all-round and without blind spots.
In their eyes, martial arts practitioners are no different from muscular idiots.
No, it must be a coincidence...
Dugu Yue calmed himself down and felt that Gu Fangchen just glanced at him and turned away again, and he felt slightly relieved.
He was just overthinking it.
"The prince's subordinates are indeed full of talented people! A guard can actually be so powerful!"
Dugu Wei watched the two men fighting in the martial arts arena, his eyes shining and marveling at the sight.
He wore a sword at his waist and was a sword cultivator, so naturally he was very interested in the battles between other sword cultivators.
Especially when the combat level is quite good.
In the past few days, cultivators on the Xiaotian list have been coming to visit, intending to become famous by challenging Gu Fangchen.
In their opinion, although Gu Fangchen has the certification of the Eyes of Heaven and a sword in hand, as the son of a noble family, he is likely to value his reputation and will not use it easily.
The public opinion released by the Wang family before still had an impact. Many people were still optimistic and thought that Gu Fangchen achieved his cultivation through drugs and evil methods.
——In a sense, they were not wrong, but they did not know what it meant to be so powerful that bricks could fly.
As long as the value is high enough, what does it matter whether the cultivation is fake or not?
But these speculators who intended to take a gamble completely misunderstood the premise.
Gu Fangchen is now an illusion and cannot touch anyone at all, otherwise the surface illusion will disappear and others will be able to see at a glance that he is just a divine thought.
Therefore, he did not respond to the challenge at all in the past two days.
According to him, not everyone is qualified to fight with him, otherwise, wouldn't it be a disgrace for him as a prince?
If you want to challenge him, you must first defeat his guards.
That is Xu Zhenguan!
Therefore, Lao Xu can be said to be the complete MVP these days.
He can take on seven or eight duels a day, and the cultivation levels of the opponents are generally much higher than his.
But this is nothing to the Bodhisattva of Adversity...
The greater the pressure, the faster his cultivation level will improve. The faster it improves, the higher his cultivation level will be, and the less pressure he will feel.
When Xu Zhenguan first arrived in Gusu, his cultivation level was only at the early seventh level, and it was not very stable.
But now, in such a high-intensity battle, he has already reached the sixth level!
An average seventh-rank challenger wouldn't be able to fight him for more than a few moves.
These people are generally ranked between fifty and twenty on the Xiaotian list.
Only those above the 20th place are at the sixth rank.
In other words, it is expected that within a few days, Xu Zhenguan's name will appear on the Xiaotian List.
Ding Xingfeng stood in the dark, watching Xu Zhenguan defeat another challenger, and shook his head.
"What a fucking weirdo..."
Old Ding may have been teaching Gu Fangchen how to do it these past two days. Seeing such a good seedling, he also started to give him some pointers.
But soon, he was speechless.
Under normal teaching, Xu Zhenguan is simply a piece of rotten wood!
Even more outrageous than Gu Fangchen who was not at dusk!
After trying a few times, Ding Xingfeng finally understood why this guy was previously unknown and could only be a menial disciple in Jiange.
I don’t know where Gu Fangchen dug out this weird thing from!
"Thank you!"
Xu Zhenguan put away his sword with a stern expression. He felt that the bottleneck of the sixth level was loosening slightly. He was delighted and became more grateful to Gu Fangchen.
The young master kept him here, it turned out that he wanted to train him!
It is not only to train his strength, but more importantly, to train his state of mind!
In the past few days, countless masters whom he once looked up to have become his defeated opponents, and the inferiority complex he had in his heart gradually disappeared.
Just as the young master said before, he is becoming a real swordsman!
He deserves the sword given by the young master!
The man opposite gritted his teeth, his face showing reluctance, but in the end he clasped his fists and saluted:
"Ninety-third on the Small Heavenly Ranking, Han Nan, I admit defeat!"
Then he left in shame.
Xu Zhenguan walked behind Gu Fangchen and said solemnly:
"Sir, you have fulfilled your mission!"
Gu Fangchen nodded slightly, waved his fan, and said:
"Not bad, you lived up to my expectations. Keep up the good work."
Xu Zhenguan's face suddenly brightened with joy:
"Thank you for the compliment, sir!"
The other members of the Dugu family widened their eyes with subtle expressions, and they all felt that Xu Zhenguan had been completely drugged.
How could such a light-hearted statement, without even any tangible reward, make such a genius serve him?
————
P.S. I recommend the book "Demon Parasite" by a friend of mine (with a mortal-like worldview, amber style, the fourth disaster, micro-group portraits, and micro-behind the scenes). If you're interested, you can check it out! The introduction and link are below!
(End of this chapter)
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