Pa!
Yunxiao snapped a long bamboo growing in a corner of the roadside with one hand and poked it through Yu Zixian’s head, holding it like a meatball stick!
“I’ll call this bamboo pole a ‘hundred heads pole’. Let’s see how many heads I can hang on it.”
The scholars’ faces instantly turned pale and their whole bodies went cold! Yunxiao had killed Yu Zixian, one of the Three Wises, and hung his head on a bamboo pole without even batting an eye. So, for him to kill them, the so-called gifted scholars, was as easy as killing ants!
Yan Jin and Gongsun Rang froze on the spot. They felt as if they were in a trance, and everything was so unreal. The companion who had been reciting poems and sleeping at the riverside with them yesterday was now reduced to a humble corpse, with his head stuck high on a bamboo pole.
Yunxiao walked up to Yan Jin with the bamboo pole and said coldly without emotion, “I’ll give you three breaths, shout out the words on the banner!”
Yan Jin shivered. He mustered up his last bit of courage as he gritted his teeth and said, “A scholar prefers death to humiliation! Although I die today, my name will live forever! You may have won for now, but you’ll be damned forever!”
Yunxiao ignored him and counted calmly, “One!”
The word ‘one’ struck Yan Jin like a hammer, making him tremble. Although scholars had moral integrity, who could hold it firmly when facing a real crisis of life and death? He only felt that the three breaths were as long as a hundred years, but when Yunxiao shouted ‘two’, he felt that the time passed too fast.
“Two!”
His body trembled violently again, his eyes full of complexity and fear while his lips were shaking as well. He looked a little out of his mind at this moment.
“Three!”
As the word ‘three’ was shouted out, Yunxiao’s indifferent expression remained unchanged, but a murderous aura exploded out of him. He took out the Taiyin sword, the blade of which glinted sharply under the sunlight. Yan Jin felt a tingling pain in his eyes, and as he looked at the bloody head on the bamboo pole, he saw its face seem to have changed into his. Suddenly, the last bit of courage in him melted away like snow under the hot sun.
“Ah! No, don’t kill me! I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die! Young Master Yun, I was wrong, I know I was wrong! Please spare my life!” He had a complete mental breakdown and fell to his knees in front of Yunxiao.
The rest of the scholars all covered their faces with hands and wept bitterly.
Yunxiao put the sword on Yan Jin’s shoulder and said indifferently, “Shout out!”
“Shout out?” Yan Jin looked up shakily at the scarlet words on the banner and burst into tears. As soon as he began to cry, he seemed to put down all his obsession as he shouted out, “Kong Renyi is a false righteous man, a real tortoise…”
All the scholars turned their faces away with sadness welling up in their hearts. Among the five constant virtues of Confucius, the most important virtue was the respect for heaven, earth, monarch, parents, and teacher. Whether or not Yan Jin could save his life today, his sin of insulting the teacher alone was enough to make him never hold up his head again.
Yunxiao said with satisfaction, “Good, this is more like it.” Then, he put the sword on Gongsun Rang’s shoulder and said coldly, “What about you?”
Gongsun Rang bowed his head in pain, but he was more decisive than Yan Jin. “Kong Renyi is a false righteous man, a real tortoise!”
“Haha! Good! After eating my excrement, you’ve become cleverer! These pretenses of righteousness are not even a fart in front of me!” Yunxiao’s face grew cold as he pointed to the rest of the scholars and said coldly, “If any of you do not shout within three breaths, I will kill you!”
A chill emanated from the sword and instantly enveloped everyone’s heart. Meanwhile, the sky seemed to turn dark as well, making them feel depressed!
“I…I’ll do it!” Finally, someone began to break down, weeping and shouting, “Kong Renyi is a false righteous man, a real tortoise.”
He had opened the gap, and as even Yan Jin and Gongsun Rang had already shouted, the rest had nothing to worry about. After all, being alive was more important than anything else!
Consequently, the air was immediately filled with shouts.
For a moment, all the people in the residence were startled. They thought they heard it wrong. Weren’t these scholars scolding their Old Master just now? Why had it changed? Why were they insulting Kong Renyi now? After listening to it several times and confirming what they heard, they hurried to inform Li Baifeng about it.
Li Chunyang and Li Xian were frozen in place as well. Even though they were there, they could not believe what they saw and heard. Each one of these scholars, who took saints as their spiritual support, was lambasting Kong Renyi! Such a sudden change completely overturned their knowledge…
“Why are you shouting so unhappily?” Yunxiao frowned and said. “I don’t want to hear an unhappy voice. Now, all of you have to shout happily! I’ll add one more rule: I’ll kill anyone who weeps or doesn’t laugh!”
Everyone gasped and immediately stopped weeping as they began to laugh. “Haha! Kong Renyi is a false righteous man, a real tortoise! Haha! A real tortoise! Hahaha!”
Li Chunyang fainted again!
Only then did Yunxiao show a smile and say approvingly, “This is more like it!” He beckoned at Li Xian and handed him the bamboo pole as he said, “Take this group of people around the capital three times. Remember the rules I just mentioned. Kill anyone who dares to violate them, and hang their heads on this bamboo pole! I want to see how many heads are hanging on it when you come back!”
All the scholars trembled and shouted harder and louder. Meanwhile, Li Xian raised the bamboo pole and led the group through the streets.
Soon, the whole capital boiled up, and everyone ran out to watch as they heard the shouts of this group of scholars.
“Haha! Kong Renyi is a false righteous man, a real tortoise! Haha! Hahaha!”
Li Baifeng was calmly drinking tea in the residence. It was just a group of scholars demonstrating outside. As long as they did not rush in, he was safe. Everything would be settled when the Old Master came back.
“Fourth Master! Fourth Master!” A servant trotted in.
“What is it? Why are you so panicked, 9527?” Li Baifeng put down his cup and asked in alarm. “Did they break in?”
9527 said hurriedly, “No, Fourth Master, they are lambasting Kong Renyi outside, saying that he is a false righteous man and a real tortoise, and they sound very happy!”
“What!”
Li Baifeng was stunned. He lifted his cup and took a sip of tea, then pondered for a brief moment and said, “Isn’t that weird? Come, let’s go out and have a look! Call all the guards in the residence!”
When they opened the front door nervously, they were shocked to find Li Chunyang and Yunxiao standing out there.
Li Baifeng said stupidly, “My…my lord? Yunxiao? You are back? Where are those scholars?”
“Hmph! What a useless thing!”
Li Chunyang looked very angry as he kicked Li Baifeng away and strode in, with Yunxiao smiling faintly as he followed inside.
Li Baifeng felt a little puzzled. He also wanted to follow, but Li Chunyang stopped him. “Hold it right there! You go outside the door and clean up the place. Don’t follow Yunxiao and me!”
The old and the young went straight to the courtyard and entered the secret chamber. Meanwhile, Li Baifeng went outside the door with a group of servants. Looking at the blood all over the ground and the wall, as well as the two headless bodies, everyone was immediately shocked. He thought to himself, ‘Did my lord kill all the scholars in his anger? But where are the bodies? Where have all the bodies gone?’
Inside the secret chamber, Chen Dasheng was fast asleep. After checking his condition, Yunxiao frowned and said, “His condition is worse than I expected. But it doesn’t matter. With me here, he can’t die even if he wants to!”
Li Chunyang watched nervously as Yunxiao stuffed a medicinal pill into Chen Dasheng’s mouth. “How long will it take him to wake up?” he asked. He knew about Chen Dasheng’s current state. The longer he stayed in a coma, the worse it would be. He needed to stay awake as much as possible.
Yunxiao chuckled, “He’s awake.”
Sure enough, Chen Dasheng slowly opened his eyes. After taking a good look at the people in the chamber, he said with a wry smile, “I fainted again. This time I was lucky to wake up, but I don’t know if I will have such good luck next time.”
Yunxiao said, “Try to stand up.”
Chen Dasheng looked at him as if he was an idiot and said, “Try to stand up? I haven’t stood for five years…” His words suddenly stopped, then a strange look appeared on his face, and his eyes were full of shock!
“I…I can feel my legs!” He cried out excitedly. “Boy, how did you do it?”
Yunxiao smiled and said, “It’s actually very simple. You are suffering from an extreme cold poison. That Sun Zhengzong only knows how to refine Melting Pills to nourish you, but it can only treat the symptoms. The method of eradication is not only to neutralize the ice, but also to remove the cold poison. This Mysterious Fire pill of mine can ward off cold and dispel poison, but it is only a second-grade medicinal pill. Therefore, we also need pure Yang energy to help you heal your injury.”
As he explained, Chen Dasheng had already propped his hands on the edge of the barrel and stood up, before slowly releasing his hands.
Fearing that he might fall, Li Chunyang stepped forward to help him, only to be hugged by him. Chen Dasheng trembled with excitement and wept with joy, “Brother, after all these years, I finally…I can finally stand again!”
“Good brother, good brother!” Li Chunyang, too, was excited and hugged Chen Dasheng tightly. For the past five years, while Chen Dasheng had suffered, so had Li Chunyang.
Chen Dasheng wiped away his tears and said happily, “Brother, you have a good grandson! I envy you so much!”
Li Chunyang said with a wry smile, “This boy…this boy…” He found himself at a loss for words to describe this grandson, so he suddenly sighed and said, “Well, if I had told him about you earlier, perhaps you wouldn’t have suffered so much.”
Chen Dasheng laughed, “I’m so happy I can stand up now. I can’t ask for anything else.”
“Lord Chen, you have to lead the army east in a few days, so you can’t be so depressed,” Yunxiao said with a smile.
“Lead the army east?” Chen Dasheng paused for a brief moment before bursting into laughter. “Haha! You boy can really joke!” He pointed to his head and said, “I can only recall my military career here.”
Yunxiao smiled and said, “Why don’t we make a bet?”
Pa!
Yunxiao snapped a long bamboo growing in a corner of the roadside with one hand and poked it through Yu Zixian’s head, holding it like a meatball stick!
“I’ll call this bamboo pole a ‘hundred heads pole’. Let’s see how many heads I can hang on it.”
The scholars’ faces instantly turned pale and their whole bodies went cold! Yunxiao had killed Yu Zixian, one of the Three Wises, and hung his head on a bamboo pole without even batting an eye. So, for him to kill them, the so-called gifted scholars, was as easy as killing ants!
Yan Jin and Gongsun Rang froze on the spot. They felt as if they were in a trance, and everything was so unreal. The companion who had been reciting poems and sleeping at the riverside with them yesterday was now reduced to a humble corpse, with his head stuck high on a bamboo pole.
Yunxiao walked up to Yan Jin with the bamboo pole and said coldly without emotion, “I’ll give you three breaths, shout out the words on the banner!”
Yan Jin shivered. He mustered up his last bit of courage as he gritted his teeth and said, “A scholar prefers death to humiliation! Although I die today, my name will live forever! You may have won for now, but you’ll be damned forever!”
Yunxiao ignored him and counted calmly, “One!”
The word ‘one’ struck Yan Jin like a hammer, making him tremble. Although scholars had moral integrity, who could hold it firmly when facing a real crisis of life and death? He only felt that the three breaths were as long as a hundred years, but when Yunxiao shouted ‘two’, he felt that the time passed too fast.
“Two!”
His body trembled violently again, his eyes full of complexity and fear while his lips were shaking as well. He looked a little out of his mind at this moment.
“Three!”
As the word ‘three’ was shouted out, Yunxiao’s indifferent expression remained unchanged, but a murderous aura exploded out of him. He took out the Taiyin sword, the blade of which glinted sharply under the sunlight. Yan Jin felt a tingling pain in his eyes, and as he looked at the bloody head on the bamboo pole, he saw its face seem to have changed into his. Suddenly, the last bit of courage in him melted away like snow under the hot sun.
“Ah! No, don’t kill me! I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die! Young Master Yun, I was wrong, I know I was wrong! Please spare my life!” He had a complete mental breakdown and fell to his knees in front of Yunxiao.
The rest of the scholars all covered their faces with hands and wept bitterly.
Yunxiao put the sword on Yan Jin’s shoulder and said indifferently, “Shout out!”
“Shout out?” Yan Jin looked up shakily at the scarlet words on the banner and burst into tears. As soon as he began to cry, he seemed to put down all his obsession as he shouted out, “Kong Renyi is a false righteous man, a real tortoise…”
All the scholars turned their faces away with sadness welling up in their hearts. Among the five constant virtues of Confucius, the most important virtue was the respect for heaven, earth, monarch, parents, and teacher. Whether or not Yan Jin could save his life today, his sin of insulting the teacher alone was enough to make him never hold up his head again.
Yunxiao said with satisfaction, “Good, this is more like it.” Then, he put the sword on Gongsun Rang’s shoulder and said coldly, “What about you?”
Gongsun Rang bowed his head in pain, but he was more decisive than Yan Jin. “Kong Renyi is a false righteous man, a real tortoise!”
“Haha! Good! After eating my excrement, you’ve become cleverer! These pretenses of righteousness are not even a fart in front of me!” Yunxiao’s face grew cold as he pointed to the rest of the scholars and said coldly, “If any of you do not shout within three breaths, I will kill you!”
A chill emanated from the sword and instantly enveloped everyone’s heart. Meanwhile, the sky seemed to turn dark as well, making them feel depressed!
“I…I’ll do it!” Finally, someone began to break down, weeping and shouting, “Kong Renyi is a false righteous man, a real tortoise.”
He had opened the gap, and as even Yan Jin and Gongsun Rang had already shouted, the rest had nothing to worry about. After all, being alive was more important than anything else!
Consequently, the air was immediately filled with shouts.
For a moment, all the people in the residence were startled. They thought they heard it wrong. Weren’t these scholars scolding their Old Master just now? Why had it changed? Why were they insulting Kong Renyi now? After listening to it several times and confirming what they heard, they hurried to inform Li Baifeng about it.
Li Chunyang and Li Xian were frozen in place as well. Even though they were there, they could not believe what they saw and heard. Each one of these scholars, who took saints as their spiritual support, was lambasting Kong Renyi! Such a sudden change completely overturned their knowledge…
“Why are you shouting so unhappily?” Yunxiao frowned and said. “I don’t want to hear an unhappy voice. Now, all of you have to shout happily! I’ll add one more rule: I’ll kill anyone who weeps or doesn’t laugh!”
Everyone gasped and immediately stopped weeping as they began to laugh. “Haha! Kong Renyi is a false righteous man, a real tortoise! Haha! A real tortoise! Hahaha!”
Li Chunyang fainted again!
Only then did Yunxiao show a smile and say approvingly, “This is more like it!” He beckoned at Li Xian and handed him the bamboo pole as he said, “Take this group of people around the capital three times. Remember the rules I just mentioned. Kill anyone who dares to violate them, and hang their heads on this bamboo pole! I want to see how many heads are hanging on it when you come back!”
All the scholars trembled and shouted harder and louder. Meanwhile, Li Xian raised the bamboo pole and led the group through the streets.
Soon, the whole capital boiled up, and everyone ran out to watch as they heard the shouts of this group of scholars.
“Haha! Kong Renyi is a false righteous man, a real tortoise! Haha! Hahaha!”
Li Baifeng was calmly drinking tea in the residence. It was just a group of scholars demonstrating outside. As long as they did not rush in, he was safe. Everything would be settled when the Old Master came back.
“Fourth Master! Fourth Master!” A servant trotted in.
“What is it? Why are you so panicked, 9527?” Li Baifeng put down his cup and asked in alarm. “Did they break in?”
9527 said hurriedly, “No, Fourth Master, they are lambasting Kong Renyi outside, saying that he is a false righteous man and a real tortoise, and they sound very happy!”
“What!”
Li Baifeng was stunned. He lifted his cup and took a sip of tea, then pondered for a brief moment and said, “Isn’t that weird? Come, let’s go out and have a look! Call all the guards in the residence!”
When they opened the front door nervously, they were shocked to find Li Chunyang and Yunxiao standing out there.
Li Baifeng said stupidly, “My…my lord? Yunxiao? You are back? Where are those scholars?”
“Hmph! What a useless thing!”
Li Chunyang looked very angry as he kicked Li Baifeng away and strode in, with Yunxiao smiling faintly as he followed inside.
Li Baifeng felt a little puzzled. He also wanted to follow, but Li Chunyang stopped him. “Hold it right there! You go outside the door and clean up the place. Don’t follow Yunxiao and me!”
The old and the young went straight to the courtyard and entered the secret chamber. Meanwhile, Li Baifeng went outside the door with a group of servants. Looking at the blood all over the ground and the wall, as well as the two headless bodies, everyone was immediately shocked. He thought to himself, ‘Did my lord kill all the scholars in his anger? But where are the bodies? Where have all the bodies gone?’
Inside the secret chamber, Chen Dasheng was fast asleep. After checking his condition, Yunxiao frowned and said, “His condition is worse than I expected. But it doesn’t matter. With me here, he can’t die even if he wants to!”
Li Chunyang watched nervously as Yunxiao stuffed a medicinal pill into Chen Dasheng’s mouth. “How long will it take him to wake up?” he asked. He knew about Chen Dasheng’s current state. The longer he stayed in a coma, the worse it would be. He needed to stay awake as much as possible.
Yunxiao chuckled, “He’s awake.”
Sure enough, Chen Dasheng slowly opened his eyes. After taking a good look at the people in the chamber, he said with a wry smile, “I fainted again. This time I was lucky to wake up, but I don’t know if I will have such good luck next time.”
Yunxiao said, “Try to stand up.”
Chen Dasheng looked at him as if he was an idiot and said, “Try to stand up? I haven’t stood for five years…” His words suddenly stopped, then a strange look appeared on his face, and his eyes were full of shock!
“I…I can feel my legs!” He cried out excitedly. “Boy, how did you do it?”
Yunxiao smiled and said, “It’s actually very simple. You are suffering from an extreme cold poison. That Sun Zhengzong only knows how to refine Melting Pills to nourish you, but it can only treat the symptoms. The method of eradication is not only to neutralize the ice, but also to remove the cold poison. This Mysterious Fire pill of mine can ward off cold and dispel poison, but it is only a second-grade medicinal pill. Therefore, we also need pure Yang energy to help you heal your injury.”
As he explained, Chen Dasheng had already propped his hands on the edge of the barrel and stood up, before slowly releasing his hands.
Fearing that he might fall, Li Chunyang stepped forward to help him, only to be hugged by him. Chen Dasheng trembled with excitement and wept with joy, “Brother, after all these years, I finally…I can finally stand again!”
“Good brother, good brother!” Li Chunyang, too, was excited and hugged Chen Dasheng tightly. For the past five years, while Chen Dasheng had suffered, so had Li Chunyang.
Chen Dasheng wiped away his tears and said happily, “Brother, you have a good grandson! I envy you so much!”
Li Chunyang said with a wry smile, “This boy…this boy…” He found himself at a loss for words to describe this grandson, so he suddenly sighed and said, “Well, if I had told him about you earlier, perhaps you wouldn’t have suffered so much.”
Chen Dasheng laughed, “I’m so happy I can stand up now. I can’t ask for anything else.”
“Lord Chen, you have to lead the army east in a few days, so you can’t be so depressed,” Yunxiao said with a smile.
“Lead the army east?” Chen Dasheng paused for a brief moment before bursting into laughter. “Haha! You boy can really joke!” He pointed to his head and said, “I can only recall my military career here.”
Yunxiao smiled and said, “Why don’t we make a bet?”
