Chapter 312: The Second Stage of the Path to the Martial God Begins: The Armored Red-robed Sorceress
Dalang is back!
When Zhao Duan stepped in and walked into the house surrounded by servants, Eugene Hua and her daughter showed sincere smiles on their faces.
In this world where travel is inconvenient, some people may never meet again once they separate.
So when Zhao Duan learned ancient poetry in his previous life, farewell and homesickness were always major themes.
Moreover, because the meeting was hard-won, the letter sent from afar was full of weight.
Zhao Duan has not been in this world for long and does not have a deep understanding of this.
He only knew that his return home caused a "sensation" in the Zhao Mansion.
All the servants in the house came out to watch. The first thing the mistress asked was, "Have you eaten?" When she learned that Zhao Duan had just returned from the palace and had not yet had lunch, she immediately ordered the cook to light the fire.
Then, Zhao Duan was welcomed into the hall, and naturally there was a round of greetings and inquiries about his well-being.
My aunt was wearing a plain double-breasted dress embroidered with plump crabapple flowers.
The girl was wearing a goose yellow skirt, which made her look particularly elegant and graceful.
The two women surrounded Zhao Duan, first looking him up and down with concern, asking questions such as whether he had eaten well and whether he had lost weight. Zhao Duan then took out the local specialties he had brought back from Taicang as gifts, and casually recounted some of his experiences along the way.
As for work matters, he gave a brief account of them, and did not mention the incident of being ambushed at all.
So, when the cook brought out the hot meal, Zhao Duan ate it with relish.
Although he had been on the road and stopped in cities along the way, it was only when he returned home that he felt his feet touch the ground and the hot food enter his stomach. After eating and drinking his fill, Zhao got up and went back to his bedroom under the pretext of resting.
…
East wing.
Eugene Hua and Zhao Pan walked back to the room. The beautiful woman took off her coat, sat cross-legged on the bed, and gently pounded her well-proportioned and slender legs to relieve the fatigue from running around.
The cleaning girl sat at the round table, excitedly unpacking the specialties Zhao Duan had brought back. She took out a jade bracelet with ice flowers inside from the gift box, put it on her wrist and played with it, saying happily:
"Mom, do you think it looks good?"
Eugene glanced at her daughter and said with a smile:
"It's beautiful, it's beautiful. Look at this precious bracelet, don't knock it and break it. Put it away, I will save it for you as a dowry in the future."
"..." Zhao Pan's face was tense, and he kept silent. He silently covered his wrist with his sleeve, determined not to take off the bracelet, and said:
"Mother, do you think that Big Brother and His Majesty have that kind of relationship?"
"Huh?" Eugene paused as she pinched her daughter's calf and stared at her daughter in surprise. "What are you talking about?"
Zhao Pan was shrewd and shrewd, his eyes rolled around and he said quietly:
"People outside have been saying that Big Brother and His Majesty have that kind of relationship, but we're family, we know our own business. I don't think that's the case. Big Brother, how many nights have you spent in the palace? When he goes to the palace, it's mostly during the day, reporting on official business...
Also, I heard that men and women become different after doing that, but I don't know how, I just feel like there's no change. Mom, you have experience, tell me, is this just a rumor?"
Eugene Hua spat and said angrily, "You virgin girl, what are you thinking about all day? Don't interfere in the affairs of your elder brother and His Majesty."
"I'm just asking. I'm not stupid and I will never tell anyone else." Zhao Pan puffed up his cheeks, which had become rounder due to the autumn weight gain.
Eugene Hua said nothing, just ending the topic.
While rubbing his crossed calves, his mind couldn't help but wander:
Dalang... doesn't look like he has ever tasted meat.
…
…
In the bedroom.
After eating and drinking his fill, Zhao Duan took a quick shower and then climbed comfortably into bed.
“I don’t know how Gao Lian’s case will develop, but Li Yanfu will definitely not let it go.
Sigh, the court finally calmed down... Never mind, it has nothing to do with me. Since Zhenbao said she would handle it, then so be it. If I really had to go to court tomorrow and answer questions in public, I would be a little nervous..."
Zhao Duan's mind was in a mess and he couldn't fall asleep.
I simply got up, sat cross-legged on the bed with my five hearts facing the sky, and started today's practice.
Practicing Buddhism is like rowing against the current, if you don’t move forward, you will move backward.
It cannot be wasted.
Breathe in and out slowly, and visualize the second picture of the Martial God's Path, "The Six Chapter Sutra", in your mind.
According to experience, he would enter a dark place without light, and then wake up after the Qi in his body had completed a complete cycle.
However, this time, when he drifted into the "Six Chapter Sutra", the darkness in front of his eyes slowly dissipated, and scenery appeared in his field of vision!
Zhao Duan was stunned!
Was there finally a change? Had he finally established himself in the Divine Chapter Realm?
What a coincidence, there is progress as soon as I return to Beijing.
Suppressing his surprise, he looked around curiously and found that he was in a desolate woodland. In the distance was a desolate suburb, and the sky was covered with dark clouds.
The wind is cold and the season is probably late autumn.
"What kind of place is this... I wonder if Old Xu is still in the Six Chapters Sutra..."
With experience, Zhao Duan was not panicked at all. He took a few steps forward and came out of the sparse woodland. The view in front of him suddenly opened up.
In the field of vision, there was a lonely and dilapidated temple standing in front of us.
The dilapidated temple looks more like a Taoist temple, but its architectural style is slightly different from that of today. It is much older and it is unknown how many months it has been abandoned.
The paint on the gate was mottled and black, covered with corrosion holes, and the lanterns on the eaves had fallen to the ground, leaving only the bamboo frame.
The temple plaque was covered with cobwebs and hung diagonally under the eaves, but the words on it seemed to have been destroyed by human beings. The steps in front of the temple were cracked and weeds grew in the cracks.
"This should be the first stop in the Six Chapters Sutra. Hmm, the architecture is ancient, hmm, it's definitely in the style of six hundred years ago. Could it be some place Old Xu has seen before? And it was painted in?"
Zhao Duan walked to the temple gate curiously, climbed the steps, raised his hand and pushed hard.
“Squeak—”
What came into view was a cold and secluded courtyard, covered with weeds and a collapsed alchemy furnace in the corner.
His eyes followed the path that was almost covered by the weeds and arrived at the main hall that had been ravaged by countless years.
The temple's doors were tightly closed, and the two outer pillars looked as if they had been hacked and chiseled with knives and axes, with the carvings destroying the original couplets.
"Is anyone there?" Zhao Duan felt a chill in his heart for no reason, and was surprised that this place was filled with a strong gloomy energy.
I shouted loudly twice, but there was no response. Only two crows flew up from behind the temple, flapped their wings, and soared onto the branches, looking down.
"No one? The style of this six-chapter sutra is a bit different from the previous one... Could the NPC be in the main hall?"
Zhao Duan complained that he was used to treating the scrolls of the Martial God Path as a game to be passed.
His feet were already heading towards the main hall, but just before he reached the steps of the main hall.
Suddenly, a cool breeze accompanied by a strong premonition of danger came from behind!
It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up in an instant!
“Something’s wrong!”
Zhao Duan turned around suddenly, and then his pupils suddenly narrowed.
He saw a pair of red embroidered shoes floating in the air behind him at eye level. The owner of the shoes seemed to be a woman.
At this moment, the embroidered shoes slowly fell from the sky, and he could clearly see a section of the ankle as white as jade above the shoes.
Further up, there are two straight and slender white legs, which are immediately covered by the falling red skirt.
"What female ghost..." Zhao Duan felt his breathing quicken, and his whole body seemed to be locked by some force, unable to move. He tried his best to raise his head and finally caught a glimpse of the true form of the woman who fell from the sky.
It was a classical woman in a dark red wedding gown. The gown looked like dried blood, with golden auspicious clouds and beasts painted on it.
However, his face was covered with a dark golden mask that covered most of his face. The shape was simple and mysterious, with only half of his chin exposed.
The woman was holding a scale rod in her hand, painted entirely in red and gold. A tassel with a green jade ring tied to it hung from one end of the handle.
At this moment, the sorceress in wedding dress descended from the sky and looked down at Zhao Duan coldly.
With a cold look in his eyes, he poked the scale bar in his hand into Zhao Duan's skull. The latter felt a sharp pain all over his body, and then his eyes went black and his consciousness became confused.
He was forcibly knocked out of his meditation state.
Before Zhao Duan was kicked out of the Six Chapters Sutra, he only heard a faint, extremely annoying voice:
“I’m… so… annoyed…”
…
Zhao Mansion, in the bedroom.
"Huff, huff..." Zhao Duan suddenly woke up from meditation, gasping for breath, with beads of sweat on his forehead.
Only after confirming that he had "returned" did he breathe a sigh of relief and recover from the state of being killed.
"If I'm not mistaken, my skull was just opened..."
Zhao Duan touched his intact forehead, his mouth twitching. "Other people's scales are used to lift veils, you use it to lift skulls, right? Old Xu, what are these things you're painting? Female ghosts? Ancient sorcerers? They don't look like warriors at all..."
Zhao Duan cursed and cursed. Through this brief contact, he judged two points:
First, the "woman in wedding dress" in the scroll is not a ghost, but most likely a powerful sorcerer, because the fact that she was fixed in the courtyard and the faint fluctuation of magic power are typical sorcerer's methods.
Of course... why wouldn't a sorcerer cast spells to kill people, but use physical means... Well, considering that the path of the God of War also involves the dual cultivation of magic and martial arts, it's understandable.
Second, this should be the practice content of the "Six Chapter Sutra".
"The previous painting, 'Martial God Picture', allowed me to follow Old Xu for a while, imitate him, learn from him, and cultivate my mind."
"This Six Chapter Sutra obviously involves 'battle practice'. If I'm not mistaken, the training involves defeating this ancient sorceress... Tsk, the more I look at this, the more it looks like a game, a Souls-based game at that... Damn, I'm not good at this. Black Goku just watches others fight without any ideas of his own..."
Zhao Duan sighed. Although he was complaining, he was also slightly excited.
What he lacked was the experience of fighting against strong men, and this scroll provided him with that.
"I just don't know which ancient powerful figure in history this sorceress with the scale is related to. Well, Old Xu certainly wouldn't make it up. She must be an opponent he once fought against, right?"
"Wait... golden visor..."
Zhao Duan was suddenly startled, thinking back to the unique dark golden visor on the face of the female sorceress in wedding dress, and couldn't help but think of the armored female shadow guard he had seen in Taicang Mansion.
(End of this chapter)
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