Chapter 325: The Demon Daoist is Stuffed to Death? (Seeking a Monthly Ticket)
Zhenbao actually convened a meeting of the imperial party?
Such a big scene? ... Zhao Duan was secretly surprised.
Your Majesty, did you summon me and take him along, or did you summon this kid as the main person, but only took me along for the sake of my reputation... Duke Ma looked at the eunuch's face, which was full of earnest and enthusiastic flattery, and felt jealous on his thin face.
What the two of them were thinking was not something that could be told to outsiders.
Ma Yan immediately stood up and made simple arrangements for Haitang and others to stay behind.
He and Zhao Duan did not take a carriage, but each rode a horse, and the three of them, along with the young eunuch, headed straight for the palace.
After arriving at the palace, someone was already waiting there, leading them straight to the palace where the imperial party had held their last gathering.
Zhao Duan was a little dazed. This was the second rally he had participated in.
The last time was when the "New Deal" was introduced and there was a storm against him in the court. He was fighting guerrilla warfare outside the stage, plotting against Li Yinglong, defeating the young cabinet minister, and then going to the palace to catch up with the small court meeting.
"Your Majesty, Lord Ma and Lord Zhao have arrived." The female official who led the way knocked gently on the door and said.
A voice called out from inside.
The two of them then straightened their clothes and stepped over the threshold. The door creaked open, and it was still the familiar side hall.
The empress sat in the main seat facing the palace door, and on both sides, chairs were placed according to the civil and military officials.
At this moment, at a glance, familiar faces such as the octogenarian Grand Tutor Dong Xuan, the elegant and handsome man in blue robe Yuan Li, the serious and straight-backed "God of War" Xue Shence, etc., have all taken their seats.
The atmosphere in the room was depressing and everyone seemed to be preoccupied.
"Please sit down." Xu Zhenguan seemed to be in a bad mood. He glanced at the two of them without saying anything extra.
In public, Zhenbao always treated him in a businesslike manner... Zhao Duan smacked his lips and habitually walked towards the chair closest to the door.
There was no way around it. With his honorary fourth-rank title, he could only be ranked last in a meeting of this level.
"Mr. Zhao, just sit here."
Xue Shence spoke unexpectedly, motioning him to sit in the second to last chair.
Zhao Duan was stunned for a moment, then turned his eyes and compared it with the last time, only to find that there were three more chairs in the room.
Is the Royal Party recruiting new members?
How could I not know... Although Zhao Duan was curious, he nodded and sat down silently.
No one in the room spoke, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.
Next, people arrived one after another. In addition to the old faces from last time, the first person who surprised Zhao Duan was an adjutant of the Qianniu Guard in the imperial palace.
He had only met Zhao Duan a few times. The last time they met was when he dispatched troops to besiege Chai Keqiao, the successor of Qingshan.
"Your Majesty." The burly adjutant of the Qianniu Guard saluted with his fists clasped.
Xu Zhenguan said "hmm" softly and motioned him to take his seat.
The other person walked up to Zhao Duan, still wearing light armor, nodded politely at him, and sat down next to him.
...something is wrong. When will the Imperial Guards' adjutant be able to attend the small court meeting... Zhao Duan raised his eyebrows and heard another voice coming from outside:
"The Alchemy Priest of the Tianshi Mansion and Kong Hanlin have arrived!"
The door creaked open.
This time, two newlyweds arrived together, and it seemed that they arrived at the palace at the same time.
Zhao Duan looked curiously, and his eyes were first attracted by a priest.
The priest's robe was dark red with an alchemy furnace embroidered on the chest.
He looked to be about fifty years old, with bright eyes and an air of arrogance as he walked in.
The other Kong Hanlin looked older, with white hair and a beard, and was a skinny old man.
The two entered the room, one bowed, the other folded his hands: "Your Majesty!"
The empress nodded coldly, and the two of them sat down on the other two empty chairs opposite Zhao Duan.
See everyone is here.
Xu Zhenguan's narrow phoenix eyes swept across the entire audience and said:
"Is it known why I summoned you all here today?"
No one answered, so this was the default.
Xu Zhenguan didn't wait for anyone to respond and continued, "What do you think of the return of the bewitching demon?"
When leaders hold a meeting, even if they have already set the tone, they must first solicit opinions and listen to speeches.
Zhao Duan pricked up his ears and saw his cheap senior brother Xiao Ma speak first:
"Your Majesty, may I ask if this is confirmed? Is it really that demonic Taoist?"
This is a question that everyone is concerned about!
Xu Zhenguan said calmly, "I can't confirm it yet, but I have verified the seal, and it is indeed the aura of a demon."
Everyone looked at each other with serious expressions.
The empresses of the pseudo-celestial realm all determined that the aura was that of the same person. Unless it was an extremely rare case, the fact that he had faked his death and returned was probably confirmed.
"Your Majesty! Regardless of whether this demon is real or not, let's assume it's true for now. Now returning to the capital and announcing it in this way is undoubtedly a provocation to the court!
This person was once an accomplice of Jian Wen, and today he is likely to appear as a member of the Kuangfu Society rebels! In my opinion, he is probably another traitor who came to rectify the rebels in the city and try to undermine the court!
Grand Tutor Dong Xuan spoke in a deep voice, his russet face showing a heavy expression.
Yuan Li nodded in agreement:
"Grand Master, what you said is absolutely true. The Kuangfu Society in the capital has been leaderless for a long time. Previously, they sent Frost Sword and Thousand-Faced God, but both were eliminated by Zhao Jisi, forcing the rebel faction to go dormant.
However... the rebels will never give up. The branch office in the capital is of great significance to the rebels!
Zhuang Xiaocheng has suffered repeated defeats, so he will definitely not make the same mistake again. If he really has the demon card hidden, it is not surprising that he plays it now, hoping that he will take action and regroup.
Xue Shence said coldly, "I'm even more curious. What's the purpose of this demonic Taoist making such a grand announcement? Is he trying to panic the entire court, just like that Thousand-Faced God?"
Ma Yan pondered for a moment and said, "That may not be the case."
"Oh?" Everyone looked over.
Ma Yan explained, "You all here should know this bewitching demon's character better than I do. When he was in the capital, he was arrogant and violent, lawless, and vindictive.
Even if he wasn't completely dead when he was 'killed', he must have escaped using some method. Regardless of the method, he must have been seriously injured. His disappearance for nearly three years without any news also indirectly supports this conclusion.
Given this person's temperament, if he hadn't been hiding to recuperate, why would he show up now?
If that was really the case… Now that he’s back, I’m afraid he’s pent up a lot of anger, and the actions he publicly announced are indeed consistent with this person’s character.
Therefore, in my opinion, his declaration is more like a forewarning of revenge, which comes more from personal interests rather than the interests of the society.
In other words, in your opinion, based on the character this demon has shown in the past, is he willing to work diligently, be a helmsman, and care about others?"
Lawless, vindictive... Why do I feel like you are describing me... Zhao Duan was complaining crazily in his heart, feeling like he was being reflected!
Ma Yan's words were spoken, and all the ministers nodded in agreement:
"That makes sense."
"Given this demon's extremely selfish temperament, revenge is indeed more likely to happen."
Soon, everyone reached almost unanimous agreement.
It is believed that the return of the Great Yu State Master this time is most likely to seek revenge against the court.
Xu Zhenguan nodded slightly in agreement:
"I think so too, so I summoned you here today to discuss a solution."
Although it was said to be a discussion, Zhao Duan, judging from Zhenbao's words and expressions, always felt that he had already made up his mind.
Today's meeting is more about unifying opinions and calming people's hearts than discussing them.
He had an idea and tried to speak:
"Your Majesty, may I ask what abilities this demon possesses? What makes him so formidable? I am a humble servant, and my understanding of him is superficial. I beg for your guidance."
…
…
Just as the imperial party’s small court meeting began in the palace.
Capital city.
Outside a certain tailor shop, on a long street, a Taoist priest slowly walked among the surging crowd.
The Taoist was about fifty years old, wearing a black and white checkered robe, his hair fixed with a peach wood hairpin, and a black peach wood sword slung across his back.
Two yellowed eyebrows hung on a slightly weathered face with slightly three-dimensional features.
The old Taoist priest looked dusty and seemed to have come from a long way. He walked among the crowd at a moderate pace.
A pair of deep eyes seemed to casually pass over the faces of the people walking on the street.
But few people noticed that deep in his pupils, there was a vortex slowly shrinking.
At the same time, a wisp of air, invisible to the naked eye, flew out from the center of the eyebrows of the paper face and was swallowed into the mansion by the old Taoist in a breath.
The old Taoist swallowed all the way, his face showing a little redness, and he murmured with a bit of intoxication:
"In this vast world, the desires of this place are the strongest and most intoxicating."
He stopped.
Turning around, he looked at a clothing store on the street.
Because it was morning and the shop had just opened, there were not many customers in the shop.
The middle-aged shopkeeper was holding a feather duster and gently patting the clothes hanging in the store to brush away the dust.
The shopkeeper turned around and looked at the old Taoist priest who walked into the shop. He looked dusty and tired, but he gave him a faint sense of creepiness. He put on a smile and said:
"This Taoist priest wants to buy some clothes?"
The former Great Yu State Master, now the Bewitching Demon Daoist, stared at him quietly and said with a smile, "I'm looking for someone."
The shopkeeper was startled and asked cautiously, "Who are you looking for?"
The two eyeballs of the bewitching demon suddenly turned into pitch-black "bewitching pupils". The sound was like the echo of a valley, layer upon layer, coming from all directions:
"I need to know the information about a few old acquaintances. Oh, and that Zhao Duan. My master is very interested in him."
The middle-aged man who was the contact person of the Kuangfu Society branch had a dull face, as if his soul had been taken away.
He walked woodenly towards the shop door and closed it.
…
…
Hearing this, everyone looked over. Xu Zhenguan was not surprised and nodded.
"That's a good question. I'm sure some of you still don't understand. Mo Chou, please explain."
Beside him, Mo Zhaorong, who was acting as the "recorder", spoke softly:
"This demon claims to have no name or surname, and now we call him 'Bewitching'. His magic lies in the word 'Bewitching', and he is very good at bewitching people.
There are generally two abilities. One is to talk with people and manipulate their thoughts and ideas to serve their purposes. However, this ability is most effective for mortals. The higher the cultivation and martial arts power, the more difficult it is.
Moreover, this kind of bewitching has a time limit. If a person is bewitched and does not continue to be bewitched, the spell will wear off in about three days and the person will wake up on their own."
Can you manipulate people to your advantage through chatting?
The ancient version of the hypnotist... Zhao Duan was secretly surprised.
This kind of magic is simply impossible to guard against. Once it gets out of control, any official who is bewitched by it will become a spy, right?
Well, although it’s short-term…it’s also very deadly.
Mo Chou continued:
"However, this type of verbal bewitching can be guarded against, and outsiders can more or less detect changes in the bewitched person. The truly powerful one is the latter type, 'entering a dream.'"
"Into a dream?"
"That's right," Mo Chou glanced at Zhao Duan and said:
"After making certain arrangements, this person, once close enough to the target, can silently enter the subject's dream and cause them to recall their deepest and most important memories... and then devour the target's dreams."
Zhao Duan was stunned: "Swallow? What does that mean?"
Mo Chou sighed and said:
"After this demonic Taoist 'died,' Your Majesty carefully studied the techniques of his lineage and discovered that his method of increasing cultivation was more like absorbing people's 'desires.' Everyone has desires, but when they are awake, they restrain and suppress them, knowing what they can and cannot do.
But in dreams, one's defenses will be lowered, and this evil spirit will induce people to dream and recall various things in life.
Those memories contain people's "seven emotions and six desires", and he will devour and eat away at these desires to strengthen himself.
The result of this action is to devour dreams... well, or to be more precise, devour people's memories."
It can be done this way... Wait, is this really a legitimate magic technique?
Why does it sound so bizarre the more I listen... Yes, this guy must be a shady sorcerer, right? That's why they call him "demon"... Did the old emperor hire a shady sorcerer as his imperial preceptor? Absolutely...
Zhao Duan opened his mouth, swallowed, and asked tentatively: "Is there no way to counter it?"
He was a little worried. How could a person resist if attacked while sleeping?
Mo Chou glanced at him again and said slowly:
"Yes, the simplest method is to have a much stronger cultivation than him. Besides that, if you are determined enough, you can also try to force yourself to wake up from the dream. The price you pay is that some of your memories will be devoured, causing you to forget some things...
Oh, there is another way, that is, your soul strength or memory is greater than his.
Well, theoretically, there's a limit to how many dreams he can devour at once. As long as you have enough memories and your dreams are vast enough, you can stuff him to death."
When she said the latter sentence, there was a hint of joking and mocking in her tone.
How can a young man in his twenties with a simple life experience and the total amount of accumulated memories compete with a demon who has lived for countless years, has rich life experience, and has devoured countless dream memories of others?
Therefore, the method Mo Chou gave at the end was purely a tease to him.
The others didn't take it seriously at all. After all, the word "theoretically" basically eliminated its feasibility.
However, Zhao Duan did not say anything, but was a little distracted.
Having lived two lives, how much information did Zhao Duan receive in his previous life as a modern person over the past few decades?
In the era of information explosion, the information he received from the Internet and in reality, and the huge amount of memory he accumulated... are things that ancient people could never imagine.
It was difficult for ancient people to leave their county towns, and they would spend their entire lives wandering around one place. So how many landscapes would they have seen?
The ancients could claim to be well-read after reading five carts of bamboo slips. Zhao Duan can obtain more than this amount of content just by watching a few short videos.
Well, don't worry about whether it's garbage or not, just tell me whether it's a lot or not...
So, if we say:
As long as he has enough memories and dreams big enough, he can be stuffed to death... Then I... seem...
It's really possible...
——
ps: I'm a little stuck, so I'll set a flag to write more tomorrow. Shamelessly ask for monthly tickets~
(End of this chapter)
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