Chapter 194 (2/2)
Under a white tower by the sea.
A wrinkled woman dressed in strange clothes made of innumerable pieces of cloth looked indifferently at the younger men in front. She said with a hoa.r.s.e and strange voice, ”If you go north of the Yan Kingdom, you need to cross the territory of the Tang Empire. The imperial court has issued a doc.u.ment so that you can cross it anyway. I believe the Tangs will not cause you trouble.”
A young sadhu looked at the woman in surprise. ”Master Quni, are you not coming with us?”
A trace of vicious hatred flashed in the old woman's eyes as she angrily said, ”In the Tang Empire, an evil place with corrupted etiquettes and no belief, it'll make me feel sick if my shoe is soiled with even a granule of its dust.”
The eldest sister of the Emperor of the Yuelun Kingdom had cultivated Buddhism with her hair reserved from the earliest days of her life. She had a profound cultivation state and an extremely high status in the Buddhism sect. These young cultivators about to go to the Northern Yan under the edict of West-Hill could all be considered her disciples.
She looked at those young men who were respectfully waiting for her order. She said proudly and indifferently, ”I walked from the north, directly across Min Mountain. I'd like to see if a Tang can stop me.”
Here was the Yuelun Kingdom, a place s.h.i.+ning with Buddhism light.
The hooves of horses stepped on fertile fields as if they could squeeze oil out of the land.
Hundreds of cavaliers moved forward underneath the warm suns.h.i.+ne. They wore pure black armor painted with intricate golden patterns. In the bright light, the golden patterns twinkled across the surface of the black armor, revealing a sense of solemn beauty and exerting a silent pressure.
Several thousand devout Haotian followers who were preparing to kneel and kowtow at the foot of the mountain listened to these thunder-like hoof sounds. They quickly retreated beneath the trees by the roadside. When they saw the faces of the cavaliers, they knelt and kowtowed. They looked surprised and awe-struck.
The West-Hill's divine guard cavalry was known as the world's most elite cavalry. Even if those followers who were devoutly kowtowing on the roadside saw just one of them, they would think it as a blessing from their ancestors. Today, they actually saw hundreds of them. They found it difficult to suppress their excitement. Some of the women even fainted out of excitement when they saw the solemn appearance of the sacred cavalries.
Some wealthy and well-informed believers had guessed the reason behind the dispatch of these sacred cavalries. But they still couldn't figure out why the Divine Hall would attach such importance to those rioting gra.s.sland barbarians.
Among the several hundred sacred cavalries were several red-robed Haotian Taoism priests. In the middle of those priests was a young divine guard cavalry general with an extraordinarily handsome, celestial-like appearance. He walked in the suns.h.i.+ne and his armor seemed plated with a layer of Haotian divine light, perfect and inviolable as the son of G.o.d.
Here was the West-Hill, a place favored by Haotian.
The Academy's Back Mountain was immersed in the deep night.
Ning Que put his Talisman drawings on a table and sat down by the corner in exhaustion. He watched the shaking fire for a moment and fell asleep before he knew it. These days he was tired to the extreme and had overused his brain.
”In such a short time, he actually came up with a solution. That day I praised Younger Brother as a Talisman Taoism genius and he really didn't disappoint me.” Fourth Brother looked at the lines on the paper and glanced at the sleeping Ning Que in the corner. ”I don't know what gave him such a strong impetus.”
Sixth Brother calculated the number of metals needed for the Talisman Arrow material. He replied,”I can feel he's in a hurry... as if he's worried. I don't know if it's about going to the Wilderness.”
Fourth Brother said, ”The Wilderness... the West-Hill Divine Palace worries about the resurrection of the Devil's Doctrine. But Younger Brother belongs to the Academy after all. Why worry? Hadn't Youngest Uncle kill enough Devil's Doctrine survivors back then?”
Sixth Brother said honestly, ”Senior Brother, I really don't understand the logic behind this sentence. Youngest Uncle has killed many Devil's Doctrine survivors back then, but wouldn't Younger Brother be more worried if he actually met someone from the Devil's Doctrine?”
Fourth Brother looked at him and asked, ”Do you think the minister of the Ministry of Rites of the Tang Empire would worry about being killed by the Yans should he go to the Yan Kingdom?”
Sixth Brother looked up and said after a moment of thought, ”Of course not. If the Ministry of Rites minister visits Capital Cheng and even suffers a slight harm, I'm afraid the Yan Kingdom will face extinction.”
”That's the same for Ning Que.”
Fourth Brother said calmly, ”If the people of the Devil's Doctrine dare harm Younger Brother, won't they be afraid of facing extinction or being killed by Youngest Uncle again?”
”But Youngest Uncle is dead.”
”Yes, but our teacher isn't. Besides, Second Brother had always wanted a chance to learn from Youngest Uncle.”
”Then what on earth is Younger Brother worried about?”
Fourth Brother looked at Ning Que who was still frowning despite being in a deep sleep. After a moment of silence, he said, ”I don't know, but he's Younger Brother. Of course, we as his Senior Brothers have to find ways to reduce his worries.”
”What can we do?”
”First, we should make the Talisman Arrows for him.”
”Oh.”
When it came to the end of the dialogue, continuous heavy blacksmithing sounds reverberated in the room. Sixth Brother moved his arm so quickly that his arm looked like a residual shadow. The sounds of iron being hit stretched one by one like a never-ending mine. However, even such a loud ruckus didn't wake up the fatigued Ning Que.
Fourth Brother held the sand table and endlessly copied the Talisman designed by Ning Que. Based on the notes Ning Que made, he tried a variety of Talisman lines matches and even began trying the array tactics to combine the lines.
The Talisman Arrow required special materials. Though much of its weight were reduced thanks to Sixth Brother's exquisite empty-tube design, it was still much heavier than ordinary feather arrows. That meant they couldn't use ordinary hardwood bows. The first thing they must do was to make a special bow before making the Talisman Arrow.
Under the continuous sounds of blacksmithing and the pouring of molten iron into the mud molds, the singular rigid bow part composed of mixed stainless-steels gradually came to shape. Most importantly, the part began to emanate a faint l.u.s.ter under Sixth Brother's careful drawing.
Fourth Brother had completely mastered Ning Que's design on Talisman lines and walked over to guide the designing of that part. He looked at Sixth Brother whose fingers seemed clumsy but was holding the silver tray like it was an embroidery thread. He furrowed his brows and asked,” What kind of scorper are you going to use? The material for the Talisman Arrow is very hard and requires high precision. Ordinary scorpers are completely useless.”
Chuckling, Sixth Brother grabbed a small box from his sleeves and retrieved a transparent metal pellet, two-thirds of which was wrapped in mysterious metal slices. ”I'll use high-hardness mixed sliver as its tray and diamond as the scorper.”
”Diamonds don't take hits well.”
”So I wrapped a layer of iron beneath it. Of course, it's not an ordinary iron piece but the same type of steel I left last time when Professor Huang and we worked together to build General Xia Hou's armor.”
”What about the sharpness?”
”I've ground it for three full days. The cutting surface is very good. Look.”
Sixth Brother raised the diamond against the roaring fire. Bright yellow flames spread through the complex surfaces and turned into numerous beautiful lights, just like stars in the night sky.
Next, the two men who were used to silence decided to eliminate their Younger Brother's fears. They started with the hardest part of this job, the archetypal build of the Talisman Arrow. And it was in this section that they encountered an unsolvable problem.
”There's no problem with the proportions of the four metals, but there are too many impurities in them. I chose the best materials from the Military Ministry, but the material itself has impurities. It's hard to purify them under the furnace's temperature.”
Sixth Brother looked at the hot metal and scratched his head. He reluctantly said, ”I've never tried this method before. It requires a high temperature to forcefully merge these four metals. I don't know how to do it.”
Just then, the door was pushed open.
Seventh Sister walked inside and looked at the sleeping Ning Que. She laughed and turned to them. ”I brought two helpers here. I don't know if you have any use for them.”
Fourth Brother looked at the two behind her and greeted them with a bow with his hands folded in front. Seemingly to have recalled something, he looked at the sleeping Ning Que with a smile and said, ”I finally understand why those Talisman Master ancestors failed to make the Talisman Arrow. Besides Younger Brother, who else has the privilege of having two Grand Cultivator in the Knowing Destiny State be his blacksmiths?”
Second Brother came over without any facial expression and grabbed a heavy hammer.
Chen Pipi smiled and came over, slowly closing his eyes in front of the stove fire.
The fire suddenly became extremely bright before swiftly turning a faint blue color.
Second Brother supported the hat on his head and swung the hammer with one hand, pounding at the burning metal.
Bam!
When the hammer was. .h.i.t the anvil, it emanated a strong jet of electric-like energy.
Besides Chen Pipi, the rest were all shaken and fell to the ground.
A huge percussion thunder-like sound could be heard in the entire Back Mountain of the Academy.
It caused waves in the clean stream.
Fish swam uneasily.
Inside the old library, a woman copying the Hairpin-style Small Regular Script upstairs looked up toward the east window and kept silent.
Two chess addicts hugged a pine tree.
Two music addicts tightly held the vertical bamboo flute and zither in their arms.
The flower addict protected the flowers before her.
The calligraphic addict continued copying her calligraphy.
Here was the Academy, the world's only Academy.
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