Chapter 203: Knighthood
Qi Yan was not in the mood to enjoy the festival.
After saying goodbye to Gu Xu, he boarded an unmarked carriage and drove along the Luo River.
The lights are getting dimmer and the crowd is getting thinner.
When the people celebrating the festival were completely replaced by neatly arranged guards, Qi Yan finally arrived at his destination——
Princess Zhaoning's Mansion.
He went straight up the stairs, crossed the threshold, and then walked along the long corridor to the neat and elegant study.
He sat on the chair behind the desk, took off the white jade bracelet from his wrist, and put it back into the wooden box.
At this moment, his body lit up with colorful illusion light.
After a while, the light faded.
The handsome young man in white disappeared.
In her place was a young woman with snow-skinned face, red lips and white teeth.
It is Princess Zhaoning Xiao Wanjun.
As a mortal with no cultivation, she got up early to handle government affairs. In the evening, she stood in a crowded crowd for more than an hour to watch the arena match, and she was already exhausted.
Fortunately, there was no one else in the room, so she didn't have to worry too much about her image, so she simply untied her bun, rested her chin on her elbow, and lay lazily at the table, yawning. The black hair is spread freely, like a hanging waterfall.
And her eyes fell again on the stack of memorials related to Gu Xu on the table.
“Interesting.”
Recalling what she saw and heard tonight, she chuckled and sighed silently.
After a short rest, she picked up the brush, dipped it in red ink, and began to complete the "red approval" work as usual on behalf of the Daqi Emperor who was addicted to cultivation.
First of all, she opened the memorial from Luo Sishou proposing to promote Gu Xu to the sixth rank of the Exorcism Department, and wrote the word "agree" on it without thinking.
Then, she obtained the Imperial Master's memorial recommending Gu Xu to be a guest teacher at Longmen Academy - to this, there were many voices of opposition within Longmen Academy.
The solution given by the cabinet is: bring Gu Xu and all the competitors together to compare their skills in drawing symbols to see who is better.
"Now there's something good to watch." This was the first thought that came to Princess Zhaoning's mind.
She had long heard about Gu Xu's superb talisman and seal skills.
The Taoist attainments that Gu Xu showed in the ring tonight really surpassed the proud students of Longmen Academy and impressed countless people.
Although Longmen Academy is known as "the number one school for practitioners in Daqi", in recent years, there have been few outstanding geniuses like Gu Xu and Su Xiao.
The Taoism, Talisman and Seal script taught in the academy are almost the same as they were decades ago, and there has been no innovation for a long time.
On the contrary, it is the exorcist department who is fighting on the front line of killing ghosts, and there are often people who improve or create new spells.
As the temporary ruler of the Da Qi government, Princess Zhaoning naturally knows the reasons behind this——
On the one hand, Longmen Academy pays attention to seniority, which makes it full of people who want to eat and die. On the other hand, the number of students in the academy is scarce, and most of them are controlled by the rich and powerful in the capital, making it difficult for talented children from poor families to enroll.
Princess Zhaoning guessed: One of the reasons why the Imperial Master, as the honorary dean of Longmen Academy, recommended Gu Xu, who was only seventeen years old, as a guest teacher was probably to change the current situation.
"Actually, I have long been dissatisfied with the group of teachers at Longmen Academy who are stuck in their ways and don't seek to make progress," the princess thought silently, "I am looking forward to it, if Gu Xu shows off his skills in front of them, he will How wonderful the expressions on their faces will be when their proud capital is crushed."
Thinking of this, she also wrote "Agree" on the ticket for this memorial.
In the end, Princess Zhaoning’s eyes fell on the memorial proposing to confer a title on Gu Xu.
This is a relatively difficult question.
Because there is a rule in the Daqi Dynasty that "no title can be awarded without military merit", under normal circumstances, merit is evaluated based on the number of ghosts killed.
Although Gu Xu saved tens of thousands of people in Qingzhou Prefecture, the Kongxuan San and the Nine Infant Snake Demon were solved by saints - there was no precedent for her to refer to such matters. Princess Zhaoning pondered for a moment, thinking of Gu Xu's astonishing performance tonight, and felt that such a rare talent should be tried every means to win over, and she must not chill his heart because of stingy rewards.
Then with a stroke of her pen, she quickly wrote down her opinion:
“Gu Xu, the exorcist department of Yishui County, has great talent and great blog. To learn, Zhou Baili dedicated himself to protecting the people. He could annihilate the evil spirits all day long, but his sincerity could be bestowed upon him by the Lord of Jinyang. "(1)
…………
Headquarters of the Exorcism Department.
After Gu Xu returned to the Yamen, he easily climbed the more than 100 steps of "Homesickness Ridge" by relying on his insights from the Lantern Festival Night and the medicinal power of "Due Dan".
The thick fog surrounding the mountains and the terrifying resistance before were no longer obstacles to his progress today.
By the time he finished practicing, it was already noon.
He stretched out, walked out of the "Qingxiang Pavilion", and decided to try the lunch in the kitchen of the Exorcism Department Headquarters.
On the way, he saw Shangguan Jin, wearing a short linen shirt with her long hair tied high, practicing her sword in an empty courtyard.
She did not use her true energy, nor did she practice the unpredictable high-grade swordsmanship such as "Yunhai Xinghe Sword". Instead, she repeatedly practiced basic sword skills such as point, stab, chop, and sweep.
It's not like practicing swordsmanship, it's more like exercising.
Although it was cold winter, her hair and clothes were soaked with sweat, and she looked as if she had just climbed out of a pond.
"Fellow Daoist Gu, are you going to eat?" As soon as he saw Gu Xu, Shangguan Jin stopped what he was doing and greeted him with a smile, "It just so happens that Sister Xiaohan is also in the public kitchen!"
Gu Xu nodded, and then asked politely: "Have you eaten, fellow Taoist Shangguan?"
"I don't plan to eat today."
"Why?"
“Because I ate too much last night, including lion heads, thousand pieces of meat, fish-flavored eggplants, and candy men,” Shangguan Jin laughed at himself, “You may not know my physique. Just like a pig, it gets fat very quickly...
"I really envy sister Xiaohan. She has magical powers like the 'Taotie Seal' and never has to worry about gaining weight."
Gu Xu did not respond immediately.
He glanced at Shangguan Jin's slender waist and thought: In the past, he only knew that she loved beauty and was passionate about dressing up, but he didn't know that she had put in so much sweat behind her back.
Then he looked down at his thin self.
Ziwei’s fate robbed him of his lifespan, and also gave him a physique that would not make him fat. Of course, for men, being too thin is actually a distress.
It's just that Gu Xu is busy practicing and has no time to lift iron, and he doesn't know what to do to grow muscles.
Maybe I need to eat some more snow ginseng?
Or do I have to wait until I become a saint to reshape my body?
PS: It took a total of four hours to write this chapter, three of which were spent writing classical Chinese QAQ
…………
Notes:
(1) Refer to Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty's "Add Wei Zhi Gu Lu Xiang Xian Zhi" and "Add Liu You Qi Shi Feng Zhi", among which:
"Difficulties and Yu": hardships and sorrows;
"Not until the end of the day": act immediately when you see the opportunity without delay;
"For God": move God;
"The master shall implement it": the court decrees are sent to the competent departments for execution.
(End of this chapter)