"Nothing? What's that?"
Cui Hui was close enough to hear clearly, but he couldn't understand what he was hearing.
The beautiful woman before her waved her hand, and a wisp of literary energy landed, transforming into a second beautiful woman, leaving Cui Hui stunned. She was not unaware that the scholar Wenxin possessed the ability to create incarnations, but this was the first time she had witnessed it firsthand, and a sense of envy arose within her.
"They are two beauties..."
Just thinking about it makes me feel so happy I could hardly breathe.
Ning Yan said, "It's nothing."
Without hesitation, Cui Hui exclaimed, "Even something that doesn't exist is beautiful!"
Ning Yan: "..."
A cold wind blew into her collar, taking away the little warmth she had, making Cui Hui shiver, and her mind instantly cleared. The temperature was low for the season, and she had been lying in the corridor for nearly fifteen minutes, her brain was practically stiff with cold: "Um, how should I address you, Your Excellency?"
Ning Yan and Wu You exchanged information instantly after exchanging glances.
"My name is Ning Yan, courtesy name Tu Nan. I served in the same court as your father, Cui Shanxiao." Ning Yan reached out to help Cui Hui to her feet, not forgetting to remind her, "The ground is chilly, Your Majesty, you should get up. Although that incantation did not fundamentally harm you, Your Majesty is easily startled as an ordinary person. It would be best to drink a bowl of calming soup before bed these next few days to soothe your nerves and help you fall asleep. If you feel unwell, please inform us as soon as possible so we can arrange for medical treatment."
It was windy in the corridor, so Ning Yan escorted her back inside.
It took Cui Hui quite a while to process what he had just heard.
She suddenly recalled the scenes before she lost consciousness.
"Lady Ning, that Mei Jinghe, she..."
Ning Yan handed her a glass of warm water to warm herself up, and said, "I already know about what happened to her. She's already gone. We couldn't stop her."
"What should we do then?" Cui Hui didn't know how many layers Mei Meng's identity was hidden, but she knew that anyone Qi Yuanliang was targeting must be someone of importance. "Wouldn't this be considered 'releasing a tiger back to the mountain and letting a dragon into the sea'?"
Ning Yan nodded: "Okay."
"That--"
Before Cui Hui could finish speaking, a shadow fell into the room.
The newcomer was a burly, imposing figure. His imposing armor gleamed with a cold metallic sheen, and a faint scent of blood lingered in the air. His mere physique exuded an overwhelming visual pressure. Upon entering, he first glanced at Cui Hui, only relaxing when he saw that Cui Hui was unharmed.
The shoulders visibly relaxed.
“Minister Ning, this humble general was unable to bring the person back.”
"As expected, she still showed you mercy." Ning Yan had heard about the old story between Lü Jue and Mei Meng and knew about their complicated entanglement. "She was protected by a very powerful martial artist. If you hadn't been sent away by her and had run into her in person, even if the medical experts from the medical field had arrived, it would have been too late. Although Wu didn't find her, she was still struck in a vital spot."
"A highly skilled martial artist?"
Ning Yan said, "They're acquaintances."
"acquaintance?"
I saw him when he was with Zheng Qiao in his early years; he was Qi Cang.
Mei Meng's guards weren't particularly strong; they were fairly standard for aristocratic families traveling together. Families with weaker backgrounds couldn't afford to support those with greater strength. However, Mei Meng was not only a daughter of an aristocratic family, but also a high-ranking official in the Qi Kingdom and the deputy head of the Southwest branch of the Qi State.
No matter how much progress Lü Jue has made over the years, it will all be for naught if he encounters Qi Cang.
Wuyou is merely a rather unique embodiment of literary spirit.
"Wouldn't it be dangerous for Minister Ning to go there rashly?"
“Wu You is my embodiment of literary energy, it’s alright. Some intelligence also needs Wu You to collect personally, and taking a risk is worthwhile compared to the gains. If Zi Xu hadn’t already disappeared, it would have been easier.” Ning Yan recalled what she heard before Wu You was dispersed, and her head throbbed. That matter was probably more troublesome than Mei Meng running away. “Sigh, he really… caused a lot of trouble.”
Lü Jue: "Her?"
Ning Yan did not respond further.
It was simply because Wuyou heard the following sentence:
Please convey this message to Qi Yuanliang.
His approach to scholarship was very effective.
This means that Mei Meng's scholarly way and Luan Xin's "drawing inferences from one instance to another" have certain commonalities, allowing one to unknowingly use the scholarly way of a third party for one's own benefit. Ning Yan is certain that Mei Meng must have used Qi Shan's scholarly way to do something, otherwise she wouldn't have deliberately left such an ambiguous provocation, which is also a provocation and demonstration against Qi Shan, or rather, the Northwest Branch.
Since it concerns Qi Yuanliang, Ning Yan needs to consult Shen Tang.
This information cannot be disclosed to any third party beforehand.
In addition to this intelligence, Ning Yan also found an "unexpected surprise" through Wuyou: "Birds of a feather flock together."
Lu Jue was still immersed in his rare defeat and didn't understand why Ning Shizhong suddenly made such a remark. However, Cui Hui, who was next to him, hurriedly nodded in agreement with the beauty's point of view: "That's the truth."
When someone is beautiful, everything they say is right.
Lü Jue: "..."
The mountain road was remote and rugged, and the cart wheels spun rapidly.
There wasn't much of a bumpy ride inside the car.
A burly man with a full beard lifted the carriage curtain and sat down without the owner's permission, leaning back casually and completely ignoring the original owner inside. After sitting for a while, he felt uncomfortable all over and sat up straight, complaining, "You scholars from noble families are so boring. Why ride in a carriage? Horses are faster and less boring. After several hours, you don't change your posture. My butt is numb from all the jostling."
Even an iron butt can't withstand such abuse.
Not only was my buttock numb, but my legs were also numb.
He disliked all that fancy stuff. We're running for our lives right now, how can we be so leisurely?
Mei Meng rested her chin on her hand and didn't look at him.
The burly man sneered: "Still thinking about your old flame?"
He parted ways with Mei Meng within the territory of Gao Kingdom, and took some time to sweep the grave of his former master and revisit the old place. Shen Youli was quite magnanimous. He was mentally prepared that his former master's grave had been abandoned and the bones were hanging on the trees. However, he did not expect that the abandoned and dilapidated academy had been carefully repaired. The grave of his former master, which was located there, also benefited from the renovation. The grave mound was clean and there was a mute servant guarding it.
The burly man and the mute servant communicated through a combination of guesswork and gestures.
I learned from the mute servant that the nearby mountain had been bought.
The owner of the hill took pity on the mute servant's plight and allowed him to live there, only requiring him to clean the academy regularly each month. He didn't give any instructions regarding the lonely grave, but the mute servant would occasionally help pull weeds when he had nothing else to do.
"Really? I don't believe it. Does nobody really come here every few days to dig up graves and whip corpses? To take a bone and make soup?" The burly man expressed his doubts, nearly angering the mute servant and being shoved out. Having gotten the short end of the stick, he stopped talking and went down the mountain to buy a lot of funeral supplies.
"No one has offered you any sacrifices or burned any money for you all these years. You must be living in poverty down there, it's pitiful. Come on, since I've come all this way, out of consideration for our past relationship as master and servant, I'll burn a little extra for you this time. Who knows when the next time will be... In these days, the next time we meet might be when I'm the one going down there. Buy yourself some good food, bribe the ghost messengers a bit, maybe if you succeed, you'll suffer less from the daily hell... But don't spend too much."
"Think about it, if I die too, we'll both be lonely ghosts with no descendants to offer sacrifices, no one to burn offerings for us, and our money will dwindle with every expenditure. If we're careful with our money, maybe we can make it until we atone for our sins and can be reincarnated. It's terrifying to think about; it's better not to die. I was so powerful and influential in the human world, getting whatever I wanted; as a ghost, I'll be as poor as you..."
While burning the offerings, he marveled at how rapidly Kangguo was changing.
[Oh ho, there are even young boys and girls.]
Burn these few too, to serve you.
It seems that Zheng Qiao has never experienced poverty in her life.
Are there any beautiful women and handsome men here? I'll burn a few pairs for you too, so you can enjoy them even in death, since you couldn't have them while you were alive.
Looking at the ashes curled up and swallowed by the flames, the burly man thought of Zheng Qiao's face, and then of the mysterious red faces of these rough paper figures. If Zheng Qiao could really receive them, he wondered who would be happy.
The burly man grabbed another handful of paper figures inscribed with "Scholarly Mind" and "Martial Courage," a large stack of which had red horizontal lines drawn around their waists, adorned with tiger tallies bearing the inscriptions "Upper Second Rank" and "Twentieth Rank Marquis": [Burn all these masters to the ground. If you find life boring, lead these ghostly soldiers to wreak havoc in the underworld, bombing ghosts for fun, wouldn't that be more enjoyable?]
The mute servant watched as the strong man burned paper money for the lonely grave for half an hour.
They mistakenly believed that the strong man's relatives lay in the lonely grave.
He turned around and went to the kitchen to get some dry food.
Where are the strong men now standing before this lonely grave?
If it weren't for the extra few pieces of gold on the table, the mute servant would have thought he was hallucinating. He hurriedly bowed and thanked everyone, thinking that he would buy some offerings next time he went down the mountain to express his gratitude to this kind person.
The burly man didn't mention a word about his itinerary during this period.
But they knew exactly where Mei Meng was.
Mei Meng said calmly, "No."
The burly man had an expression that said, "You don't need to hide it."
He only got in touch with Mei Meng a few days ago. The Kangguo side is unaware of his infiltration. As long as Mei Meng is determined, she can theoretically bring Lü Jue back whole or piece by piece, it will just take a little effort.
“This person is indeed talented. If he were my age, I would run away when I saw him. But who told him to be born so many years too late? Whether I kill him or cripple him, it’s all the same.”
Mei Meng glanced sideways at the burly man.
Playfully: "Is that all the general has in his mind?"
burly man: "..."
"We can neither take him away nor kill him, just as Shen Youli didn't kill me before you arrived, did she? If I were just Mei Jinghe, I would be nothing more than an ant that could vanish with a wave of the hand of those in power. But I am still a confidant of the King of Qi, and the deputy head of the Southwest Branch. Once my identity is revealed, I cannot act directly. Whatever I do or say in secret, I must also keep things under wraps in public..."
Therefore, Lü Jue cannot die.
Or rather, no matter who tries to stop us today, we cannot die.
The burly man simply scoffed at this.
He was most impatient with these schemes and plots.
"Wait until Shen Youli finds out what you've done..."
Mei Meng closed her eyes and said, "That was just one part of the plan. My path to perfection cannot have even the slightest mistake."
Does it have to be perfect?
From Zhuang Han's perspective, it's better for Mei Meng's scholarly path to be imperfect, as a perfect path is too easy to arouse suspicion.
"The way of the scholar is to examine one's own heart. General, would you give up the way of martial arts because of some trivial obstacles?"
The answer is no.
The burly man knew that it was pointless for him to say anything more.
As the cart wheels lurched and jolted, the burly man silently watched the scenery rushing past the window. After a long while, Mei Meng was struck by a booklet that the burly man pulled from his arms; the booklet landed on the hem of her clothes.
Mei Meng picked it up with a puzzled look.
The first line of the booklet prominently displayed several large characters.
Counterattack! Starting in prison, I am the emperor!
The signature reads: "Lacking in virtue of the Five Elements".
A strange look appeared on Mei Meng's face.
"The general still looks at these things?"
"What do you mean 'still reading this stuff'? It's something for everyone, a specialty of Kangguo! I just found it interesting; some of the ideas in it really resonated with me. The person who wrote this book must have been a master." The burly man skipped over some details and changed the subject, "There's a very interesting conjecture in it, saying that the root of women's cultivation in the world might lie with those in power, in other words—"
The burly man said solemnly, "The restraints have been lifted."
Mei Meng has no need to risk fulfilling this scholar's way.
She turned to the page in the booklet where the burly man had made a note.
After a long pause, he smiled and asked, "You mean to say that the lifting of the restraints placed on me is related to Shen Youli?"
The calculation of the time she could cultivate was indeed accurate.
The burly man said, "It seems so at the moment."
Mei Meng lowered her eyes and put the book aside.
"But she is her, and I am me. How many people can replicate the path she walked? Qi Yanqing, Shen Youli first became famous at the age of twelve, during the Xiaocheng Alliance period. What was her strength? How much does the world know about her experiences in the twelve years before that? She appeared out of thin air! I ask you—decades, centuries later, dynasties rise and fall, and the shackles that were once broken are put back on. Which twelve-year-old girl in the world can replicate the path she walked? Is it even possible to replicate it?"
The fundamental premise of replication—
Only those with sufficient ability are qualified to step onto the Xiaocheng stage.
This strength is the foundation of everything.
Without a solid foundation, everything is just a mirage.
“And the path I’ve taken…” Mei Meng opened her eyes and looked into Qi Cang’s eyes, saying each word clearly, “Even without Shen Youli, I can still become a literary scholar. Even if that should have been ten, twenty, or thirty years from now, there is still hope.”
"I want to go through it myself."
"This proves that it can be replicated and imitated by future generations."
Even if its chances were slim to begin with.
The burly man sighed and slapped his thigh, saying, "It would have been much more exciting to assist you back then!"
He licked his dry lips.
Mei Jinghe's madness is even purer than that of his current lord.
Mei Meng: "...No, I'm not interested."
She was able to leverage the power of the princess to rise to power because the princess was born with a very high starting point. She could obtain a decent fiefdom in accordance with etiquette and law, and once she was fully powerful, she could "hold the emperor hostage to command the princes." Everything she did would be justified, which was far better than starting from scratch.
If one takes oneself as the master, one will lack the most important "legitimate" banner, and will be hindered in everything from recruiting soldiers to other matters.
She's not like Shen Youli, who could fight back and even gain the upper hand most of the time when surrounded and schemed against by multiple forces...
From this perspective, Shen Youli's path is indeed difficult to replicate.
It cannot be used as a reference for future generations.
Mei Meng answered firmly, but the strong man refused to believe her.
He who steals a hook is punished; he who steals a state becomes a prince.
How could someone who takes this as the way of the scholar be willing to be subordinate to others?
Is Mei Meng a thief who steals hooks and a thief who steals the country?
Or perhaps, she was the executioner who killed them both?
"Is that guy surnamed Shen going to fight those two from the Eternal Life Cult?" The burly man rested his chin on his hand, looking bored. He wanted to get involved but didn't want to be caught in the crossfire. "It's a pity I can't watch the show. But—watching your show is fine too."
Witness the fulfillment of the scholar's path by the literary heart and the scholar.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
|ω`)
Tangmei: You actually witnessed two such a once-in-a-lifetime ceremony.
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