Chapter 872 Complaining about the environment, complaining about the strong
It was the dead of night.
High in the sky, a three-legged bird is soaring rapidly.
A young girl in a light green dress, carrying a sword on her back, stood on a bird, clutching a piece of white jade tightly in her hand.
The white jade shimmered with a certain light.
The girl in the light green dress seemed to be holding it tightly, as if she were sensing something.
She set off as instructed by her senior sister, riding the insect girl, and had only been away from the Hall of Mental Cultivation for a short while.
"Strange, it's already starting to get hot, could it be because we're very close..."
The girl in the light green dress muttered to herself, head down, studying the medicinal jade, preparing to ask the insect girl to slow down, and surveying her surroundings.
Just as she was slightly confused, the medicinal jade in her hand suddenly lost its light.
The slight warmth that had initially appeared on the medicinal jade disappeared.
"Strange? Was there a reaction just now? Or was it just my imagination?"
The girl in the light green dress became increasingly puzzled.
She shook her head, glanced around casually, and didn't call for the insect girl to stop, letting it continue flying northeast.
Looking around, it seemed they were about to leave the Yunmengze area. The girl in the green dress didn't seem surprised and thought it was normal.
If the thief is within the Yunmeng Marsh area, then the sudden burning reaction of the medicinal jade at the beginning is rather abnormal, and she should investigate further...
At this very moment, a certain Yunmeng Sixth Lady, who was searching for someone while carrying jade, rode an insect girl and passed by two small islands below.
Unbeknownst to her, on an island below, in a bamboo courtyard, a snow-white longsword that had been sending out a signal had been "suppressed" into the Mo family's sword box, wrapped in lightning essence threads, and unable to move.
The right wing room was completely dark at that moment.
The Peach Blossom Spring painting has been closed.
The snow-white sword energy that had "rebelled" not long ago seemed to have never happened.
Ouyang Rong sat on the couch, staring wide-eyed at Miao Si, who was "meritorious in protecting" him.
"No, the peach is for Aqing."
Ouyang Rong was the first to shake his head.
Miao Si immediately protested:
"Little Rongzi, you're being unfair! If I hadn't stayed up all night with you, you would have been exposed by now!"
Ouyang Rong frowned and, out of caution, first inspected the Qingyan Late Peach Blossoms in the Peach Blossom Spring painting.
Miao Si's expression changed slightly upon seeing his actions.
Ouyang Rong vaguely noticed that the peaches seemed to have been moved slightly. He looked up and asked the little ink spirit with a serious expression:
"You did help this time, but are you sure you're staying up so late to keep watch for me, and not secretly trying to steal my peaches?"
A hint of guilt flashed in Miao Si's eyes, then she glared, puffed out her chest, and raised her head, retorting to Ouyang Rong:
"Fine, I, the fairy, was thinking of you and came out to protect you the moment you arrived. You doubt me, huh? Fine, stop asking so many questions. They're all just excuses. There's no point in arguing any further. Alright, I'll leave, okay?"
After saying that, she put her hands behind her back and burrowed into the quilt without looking back, as if she no longer wanted to talk to that person.
However, Ouyang Rong interpreted it differently:
"Don't leave, are you feeling guilty?"
He reached out and covered the blanket, blocking her way.
At the same time, just in case, Ouyang Rong picked up the bronze mask at his feet and put it on his face.
With her path blocked, Miao Si turned around, her neck stiff, and said in a tearful voice:
"You're the one with a guilty conscience! You're ungrateful for my kindness. I knew I shouldn't have come with you. I went through all that trouble to help you, and you still bully me!"
Ouyang Rong gave her a half-smile.
The little ink spirit felt as if it had been seen through, its little face contorted with anger, and it put on a fierce expression, saying in a show of bravado but actually weakness:
"What are you looking at? Is what you said wrong?"
Ouyang Rong pursed his lips, then suddenly reached out and patted the little black spirit's head:
"Alright, if you like it, then eat half and leave the other half for Aqing."
Just as Xiao Mo Jing was about to unleash a torrent of angry words to accuse Xiao Rong Zi, she suddenly choked.
Her face looked suspicious, and she took a step back to ask:
"Really?"
"Fine, don't eat it then."
Ouyang Rong withdrew his hand from the painting as he picked up the peach.
But in a flash, Little Ink Spirit pounced over and grabbed Ouyang Rong's arm, her little face beaming with joy:
"No, no, no, eat, eat, hehe."
Ouyang Rong was speechless, but he still took out the Qingyan Late Peach and cut it in half with a knife.
The aroma of peaches filled the air, and the juice dripped down, only to be caught by Miaosi's little hands, which she reluctantly drank down.
Miao Si smacked her lips, her little face beaming with happiness, and took the peach that Ouyang Rong handed her, then began to devour it with gusto.
Seeing that she was eating with great relish, Ouyang Rong also glanced at her sideways.
"It's so delicious?"
"Hmm, these peaches are special. Little Rongzi, you should steal a few more another day."
"Steal? Do you think this is my home? You can't just come and go as you please."
Miao Si mumbled indistinctly, and said casually:
"So you went to bully people again tonight?"
"How do you know I was bullying someone? I clearly fell for a trap and almost didn't make it back."
Ouyang Rong looked down at the sword box.
After sensing the movement, he found that the snow-white longsword was no longer moving, and breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Based on what I overheard in the Snow Candle Heart-Questioning Game.
Today's situation was almost a dead end, but fortunately he awakened the second stage of the [Emperor Wen]'s supernatural powers.
Now that they've waited so long, that so-called Sixth Lady must not have found him, otherwise she would have come long ago...
Miao Si tilted her head and said:
"You seemed distracted just now, like you were out of your mind, not moving at all, but you had a wicked smile on your face, I don't know what you were gloating about."
"I know that smile of yours all too well; it's just mischief."
Ouyang Rong shook his head and remained silent.
After a short while, he urged Xiao Mojing to go to sleep.
"Alright, it's time to rest. Also, since you've eaten peaches this time, try to complain less. I didn't bring you here intentionally to make you suffer, but we're in a new environment now, full of potential dangers. Try to complain less about the environment. If there are any problems, we'll solve them and improve them together. Remember, strong people never complain about their environment..."
Miao Si put her hands on her hips and shouted:
"The strong don't complain about their environment, so you think you're the only strong one? Fine, this fairy will not only complain about the environment, but also about the strong! What's wrong with that?"
Ouyang Rong was speechless.
"Okay, very good, keep it up."
Miao Si gloated for a moment, then ran off to sleep with her short legs.
Inside the pitch-black room, Ouyang Rong surveyed his surroundings and let out a long sigh of relief.
He muttered to himself:
"This little guy, although unreliable, still knows what's important at crucial moments. If I'm not mistaken, Zhi Shuang just tried to unleash her sword energy to reveal my location."
"According to Lady Zhishuang, the Sixth Lady is coming to find me with that strange bird. And this island is in the Yunmeng Sword Marsh. Luckily I reacted quickly, otherwise I would have been found. The fact that she hasn't come yet probably means she dealt with Zhishuang in time..."
"Heh, Miss Zhi Shuang probably never imagined that I was right here in their Sword Swamp."
Ouyang Rong shook his head.
After a short while, he stroked the sword box and squinted as he reviewed the situation again.
He adjusted his mask and muttered to himself:
"I definitely can't release this sword in a short time. I didn't expect this sword to be so closely connected with Miss Zhi Shuang, and to be able to project me onto her as a medium. However, I acted impulsively and pressed my advantage, which also led me into the trap."
Ouyang Rong slowly nodded:
"They must have initially planned to unleash their sword energy and ambush me in the middle of the night. If the first strike failed, they would lure me deeper and trap me in the Hall of Mental Cultivation. They didn't intend to kill me, just to buy time for the Sixth Lady to find me... They just didn't expect me to be so proficient in the [Emperor Wen's] divine power, breaking it with the sound of a bell..."
"Speaking of which, this sword is indeed strange. Since it is connected with the Snow Candle, doesn't that mean I can also use this sword to trip up Lady Zhi Shuang?"
“That makes sense. She can set a trap for me, so why can't I use this Frostbite to set a trap for her? Besides, the real sword is with me, and I can still seal it with the physical sword. But what about her? She is very likely a sword cultivator who has bound herself to her natal sword and cannot unilaterally break this connection. She has no way to prevent it…”
Ouyang Rong muttered to himself, his eyes thoughtful.
After a short while, he temporarily set aside this "bold idea," looked around, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.
"Speaking of those three sword intents, besides Snow Candle, there should also be two female rulers. I wonder who they are... Also, what is the current situation of the Embroiderer? Judging from the 'heart-to-heart' words of Lady Zhi Shuang, the Embroiderer should be safe and sound, protected by her senior sisters."
"If she says she'll inherit the future Yuanjun's position, then it means that Xiu Niang is temporarily safe... But what kind of place is the water dungeon? Why does Lady Zhi Shuang want to lock me up there? Is it some kind of eighteen levels of hell? I should thank her for her kindness."
After reviewing the situation, Ouyang Rong put away all the items and incorporated them into the Peach Blossom Spring painting.
Outside in the bamboo courtyard, the faint sound of Sha Ergou's snoring could be heard, further emphasizing the quietness of the courtyard.
However, Ouyang Rong, with his sharp ears, faintly heard someone pacing impatiently in the neighboring courtyard, occasionally accompanied by the sound of a door slamming, which seemed to be coming from Lu Jinghong.
I don't know if I was woken up by the snoring.
Sha Ergou's left wing room does indeed seem to be right next to the courtyard of the Lu family mother and son.
Ouyang Rong was alright; he was already immune to snoring.
Outside in the courtyard, the chirping of insects could already be heard.
Dawn is very close.
The recent events at the Hall of Mental Cultivation had kept Ouyang Rong in a state of heightened excitement, making it impossible for him to fall asleep.
He simply got up, sat cross-legged on the couch, and closed his eyes to check his own condition.
First, he looked inward at his dantian. The spiritual energy in his dantian had been exhausted along with the purple mist of merit from not long ago. It was slowly recovering with his breath. Without the aid of qi-replenishing pills, it was estimated that it would take several hours of meditation to recover some of it.
However, Ouyang Rong was not in a hurry. Anyway, the second test during the day was a test of talent and physical attributes, which was likely the same test that Xue Zhongzhu had used to check his Qi Refining talent. Since he had no spiritual energy or his spiritual energy was thin, it would reduce the probability of his Qi Refining cultivation being detected.
Moreover, by then, all the restored spiritual energy will be used up to unleash the initial stage of the [Emperor Wen] divine power, blurring out some easily detectable traces in the dantian and evading inspection.
With this in mind, Ouyang Rong went to the Merit Pagoda again and took a look at the gentle little wooden fish.
[Merit: 281]
In fact, his merit points had just run out, but with the "low-income" housing in Zheyiqu, Shuangfengjian, and Xingzifang, he would receive a little over 100 merit points every day. After accumulating overnight, and with the fact that another Buddha statue might have been brought to the Xunyang Grottoes last night, his merit points had increased by almost 200, and now they were back to over 200.
Ouyang Rong estimated that, including the merit points from the daily "minimum living allowance" feedback, these merit points would be enough for him to maintain the Bronze Mask's Ashan avatar on a daily basis.
However, there is no more merit purple mist to use in the short term, and the Kui Xing talisman must be drawn less often to make way for the continuation of the bronze mask.
Tonight's match certainly took a toll on him.
However, Ouyang Rong also gained a lot, the first being the elimination of the hidden danger of "Zhi Shuang".
Secondly, by taking advantage of the perilous situation in that strange palace, he unexpectedly awakened to the intermediate-level divine power of the [Emperor Wen].
Previously, when Ouyang Rong wrote "The Song of the Pipa" at the head of Xunyang River and comprehended the true meaning of "Emperor Wen", he had already vaguely sensed that "Emperor Wen" was very special, perhaps because it was related to the prosperous fortune of the two unified dynasties. His innate supernatural power was multifaceted, and three types had already emerged.
At that time, Ouyang Rong vaguely realized that these three types of supernatural powers respectively focused on Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. After summarizing them, he gave them three rough names: the supernatural powers of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, which also corresponded to the three levels of beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
The supernatural power of the Buddha is the familiar golden sword energy, which allows the user to confuse reality with illusion, turning reality into illusion. During the great battle at Xunyang Grottoes, the group wielding the fake Buddhist beads and cauldron used this supernatural power.
Those who are possessed by the golden light are as if they have obtained the legendary "Bodhi Golden Body", which gives them three breaths of ethereal time and makes them immune to all physical attacks.
Tonight, Ouyang Rong's newly comprehended Daoist supernatural power is the same wondrous zither music that the old musician once mastered, capable of revealing all hidden things, including the cultivation level of Qi cultivators.
However, the true meaning of the Emperor Wen is ever-changing, and his sword techniques are ever-changing. Different people understand them, so the forms of expression are naturally different.
Similar to the naming of "Bodhi Golden Body," Ouyang Rong named this supernatural power "One Hundred and Eight Bell Rings" based on his own experience, which also fits him perfectly.
However, the old musician must have mastered it earlier and understood it more deeply; Ouyang Rong remembered that his music could last for a long time.
Ouyang Rong is currently a seventh-rank swordsman, and can only perform the simplest "bell ringing" 108 times, which is close to 108 breaths. After thinking about it, it is enough.
It is at least longer than the three breaths of the Bodhi Golden Body.
Ouyang Rong pursed his lips and looked down at his palm.
The traditional path of the swordsman is a dead lineage; only one in ten thousand can walk it, and many things require him to open up his own path.
All that the predecessors who wielded the sword could leave behind were sword techniques. Much of the knowledge of the sword wielders was considered "useless" by the world, so it was difficult to pass it down. Even if it did, it was the top secret knowledge of hidden sects or dynasties.
Ouyang Rong felt that although he was terrible at naming things, his good habit of summarizing and generalizing was much more responsible than legendary sword masters like Tao Yuanming who were carefree and never left a word.
If future generations of sword wielders have the opportunity to inherit his legacy, they will be truly blessed.
Yes, just like I joked with Miaosi not long ago, strong people don't complain about their environment...
(End of this chapter)
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