Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 393 - 323 Authentic Ink Treasure_1

Chapter 393: Chapter 323 Authentic Ink Treasure_1

The shopkeeper’s brows knitted together at the sight, "Honored guest, you’re not going to tell me that you don’t have any money to pay the bill, are you?"

Upon hearing this, Li Xuan gave an awkward laugh, "I’m a bit short on cash at the moment. Is it possible to run a tab? Or maybe offer something as collateral?"

"Apologies, honored guest, our inn does not accept credit or collateral." The shopkeeper couldn’t help but feel a bit scornful. He thought to himself that although this fellow looked the part, he was nothing more than a pauper.

Could his bright yellow Feiyu Suit be a fake?

During the Hongwu and Yongle eras of the Jin Dynasty, commoners didn’t dare to wear the Feiyu Suit casually as it could mean death. After Yongle, however, laws were relaxed, and many ordinary people, attracted by the grandeur of the Feiyu Suit, made slight modifications to it, like adding extra wings to the flying fish embroidery, or not adding dragon scales – this made it not technically a Feiyu Suit, and hence not against the rules.

Still, bright yellow Feiyu Suits were rare.

By the looks of it, this fellow should be under twenty, yet he was dressed in a Feiyu Suit, with a golden fish pouch, a Xiuchun Knife, and a southern accent—has anyone in the court ever heard of such a character?

Could he be a rich, spoiled brat who prepared this full set of clothing by himself?

The contempt in the shopkeeper’s heart grew stronger, but he remained courteous, "If the esteemed guest doesn’t have any money, you could write a note and ask someone you know to lend some. Our inn can deliver the note for you at a small charge. If you really can’t borrow any, you could pawn an item. We are familiar with nearby pawnshops and can invite the pawnbroker over to inspect your item."

—And if that doesn’t work, they would have no choice but to take these guests to see the officer.

Li Xuan couldn’t help but sigh, thinking this was quite troublesome. He was already considering which of his uncles or aunts he could borrow silver from. Luo Yan was already preparing to pay the bill. She merely wanted to give Li Xuan a hard time; she had no intention of actually embarrassing him.

Just then, a customer from a nearby table chuckled, "Actually, there’s another way to get out of paying the bill. See that stone stele outside? The rules of Shanwei House state that any customer who can write a few lines on the stone tablet can get out of paying their bill, no matter how much it is."

Upon hearing this, Li Xuan glanced down and indeed saw a stone tablet. It was about as tall as two people and approximately ten feet wide. The surface was greenish-white. He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, "Shopkeeper, does your establishment have such a rule? Was that guy just making things up?"

He thought to himself that surely there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

"There is actually such a thing!" The shopkeeper nodded, "Our inn is less than twenty paces away from Hanlin Academy, Honglu Temple, and the Zhanshi Government. It is within a hundred paces of the six ministries. Scholars and literati gather here, and grand scholars are common. As such, our master, in a bit of fun, took a stone from Wuyi Mountain and arranged for a heavenly-level master to shape it into a stele to erect here."

"Wuyi Mountain? The one that belongs to the Liudao Division?" Li Xuan raised an eyebrow, "Isn’t it said that the stone wall cannot be damaged?"

The mountain occupied by the Liudao Division stood near Beijing. Inside, there was an indestructible stone wall that could not be damaged by mortal strength. Only cultivators who had reached the ’Hun’ level could cause some limited damage to the wall.

In the twelve hundred years since the establishment of the Liudao Division, forty-seven heavenly-level masters had left marks on the wall, encapsulating their martial law concepts within it.

As it happened, Li Xuan still had nine days-worth of research to do at Wuyi Mountain.

"The largest stone wall is indestructible, but there are also some scattered stones around it."

The shopkeeper explained, "These rocks are smaller, and the requirements for leaving marks on them are also much lower. Usually, if a Wu cultivator reaches The Fourth Gate, and their Wuyi reaches the ’Po’ level; or if their HaoQi cultivation reaches the level of retaining vast Qi and having a loyal heart, they can leave their mark. However, so far, only seventeen people in the entire Capital City have been able to leave their name on the stele—all of them grand masters near the heavenly level."

The implication was that the customer shouldn’t bother.

Li Xuan knew that Confucian scholars had four major realms before reaching the heavenly level: Qi stored in the chest, invulnerable to fire and water, the burning heart, and long-lasting vast Qi. This realm of long-lasting vast Qi was equivalent to the fourth gate for Wu cultivators, between the tenth and twelfth house levels.

HaoYi’s quality was differentiated by color, with mixed colors being the lowest, followed by silver, gold, red, purple, up to the most noble and purest color, glazed blue.

The red stage was called ’loyal-hearted,’ equivalent to the Po level of Wu Dao cultivation; purple was called ’Purple Air,’ equivalent to the Hun level of Wu Dao cultivation.

Li Xuan’s HaoQi had just crossed the threshold of ’loyal-hearted,’ which was unheard of at his level.

He knew he was still constrained by the fact that his Great Rectitude was not sufficient. Otherwise, with the purity of his HaoQi, turning HaoQi purple would be easy.

So, after hearing this, Li Xuan’s expression changed slightly, and he hopped over the railing onto the stele. Looking at the stele, and the writing next to it, he found it was mostly unfamiliar poetry or excerpts from the four books and five classics, all written with cinnabar.

Li Xuan hesitated. He did have some confidence, but he was worried about his charitably described "ugly" handwriting. But then it occurred to Li Xuan that as long as he didn’t sign his name, who would know afterwards whether those characters were written by a man or a dog?

"Shopkeeper, bring me the cinnabar ink and brush."

At this late hour, there were only a few tables of guests left in the inn. But when Li Xuan uttered these words, the whole inn was in an uproar. Astonishingly, dozens of people moved to the window to look down.

The people sitting at the table next to Li Xuan were incredulous.

"This guy, is he really going to write?"

"I bet he hasn’t heard of Wuyi Mountain. There should be a limit to overestimating one’s abilities—"

"On that stele, there are either the writings of grand scholars or the Wuyi of near heavenly-level masters. He really has some nerve to try."

"Why bother with him? If he wants to embarrass himself, that’s his business."

The shopkeeper already looked helpless, after a short discussion with a manager who had come out they soon held a wolf brush and a bowl of cinnabar ink before Li Xuan.

"Sir, if you fail to etch your words, you will still be charged for these tools, for a total of twenty teal of patterned silver."

Li Xuan ignored him and dipped his brush in the ink.

"Li Xuan, are you really intending to write?" Luo Yan and Yue Qianqian landed by his side, Luo Yan looked at the stele and frowned, "Your purity of Great Rectitude is sufficient, but you are lacking in quantity."

"Let’s try it! And, don’t call me by my name now."

Li Xuan adjusted his breath, began to call up the vast Qi in his body, and at one corner of the stele, he wrote, ’Heaven and earth have righteousness, mixed in various forms, the lower is rivers and mountains, the upper is sun and stars’.

At the moment when the two characters ’Righteousness’ were written, hundreds of cinnabar characters on the stele suddenly turned a crimson gold. The whole restaurant began to shake at this moment.

Everyone in the upper floors of the restaurant felt this and was surprised.

"What’s happening?"

"Is the building shaking? Is it a subterranean dragon?"

"Impossible! A subterranean dragon wouldn’t just create such a slight disturbance."

The shaking soon subsided, restoring the tranquility.

At this time, Li Xuan frowned. He hadn’t finished his sentence when the cinnabar ink previously engraved on the stele turned into smoke and dissipated.

The shopkeeper seemed unruffled, he calmly stated: "Sir, it’s not easy to etch words on this stele. Just this month, Scholar Lin from the Hanlin Academy tried seven times without success. He is a renowned scholar in the capital and a prime ministerial candidate. And Earl Huichang, the imperial uncle and a high-level practitioner of The Fourth Gate, has also tried six times."

At this time, a hint of doubt appeared in the eyes of the shopkeeper. He saw a glimpse of a reddish-golden color on the characters on the stele, but it disappeared in a very short time, leaving him wondering whether he saw it right.

"You were close." Luo Yan felt sorry for Li Xuan: "I told you, your Great Rectitude is not enough. Even if only to The Third Door, you should be able to etch your words."

"Let me try again!"

Li Xuan was not discouraged. He then wrote on the stele ’Bite on the blue mountain without letting go, the root lies in the fractured rocks.’ However, only halfway through, the characters turned into smoke and disappeared.

At this time, a burst of laughter came from upstairs.

"Kid, I suggest you stop trying. Do you even know your own abilities?"

"That’s some thick skin."

"Is he just playing dumb? Can’t pay the bill, so he’s stalling?"

The shopkeeper rubbed his eyes – he saw once again the reddish-golden hue on the characters. He wondered if he was having a hallucination due to fatigue.

He shook his head, and then suggested with an insincere smile: "Sir, why don’t we consider another method of payment?"

Li Xuan ignored him, took a deep breath, and started recalling the additional memory and Sword Intent related to ’Bamboo’ from Xiahou Ying.

The golden threads on his arms began to shimmer.

Almost no one noticed that behind Li Xuan, the shadow of a Taotie was gradually taking shape.

After a moment of contemplation, Li Xuan wielded the brush again and wrote ’Bite on the blue mountain without letting go, the root lies in the fractured rocks.’

Both Luo Yan and Yue Qianqian let out a surprised exclamation. They were surprised that the line did not evaporate quickly this time, and they were also surprised that the characters written by Li Xuan, which used to look like a dog’s crawling, now have a kind of strength, like clouds flowing in water, which was very spirited.

The two women seemed to see a bamboo rooted in a rock.

Next, Li Xuan wrote with dexterity ’A thousand grindings and a ten thousand hammers are still hard, stand up against winds from all directions’. At this moment, his vast Qi and the bamboo-like Sword Intent completely fused, soaring on the stele.

Of the three hundred characters originally on the stele, nearly half evaporated at this moment. In the Wen Temple in the northern part of the capital, a huge bell suddenly tolled.

At the Hanlin Academy, only twenty paces from Shanwei House, more than twenty academy students, who were working overnight to copy the Yongle Encyclopedia, all looked up in surprise and looked out of the window.

"Who is this? Such a pure vast Qi, it tastes like Purple Air."

"It’s nearby, it should be one of the great scholars in the capital. But this intent feels unfamiliar."

"The temple bell is tolling, meaning that the true ink treasure of Confucianism has again appeared in the world, just not sure which grand scholar wrote it?"

"Amazing, this vast Qi is not powerful, but it is pure and almost suppressed my Shenpo."

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