mtlumby2d #543 - The Avenue Contest
#543 - The Avenue Contest
The steel whip exploded in the air like firecrackers. Zhang Chen stepped aside, dodging the attack, his eyes filled with disbelief as he looked at Marquis Pingbei: "I'm here to deliver a message to you, why are you attacking me?"
"You're here to deliver a message to me? Heh~ You damned commoner, if you dare to come to my study to deliver messages today, you'll dare to assassinate me tomorrow." Marquis Pingbei's eyes were filled with coldness, the steel whip in his hand twisting like a dragon, constantly biting at Zhang Chen.
Seeing this, Zhang Chen sighed softly. Marquis Pingbei was surrounded by dragon energy, and his own true dragon energy couldn't break through the opponent's protective dragon energy for the time being, so he could only keep dodging: "Just because of this?"
Zhang Chen's voice was filled with disbelief.
"Enough! Killing you, this audacious assassin, is more important than what you have to say." Marquis Pingbei wielded the steel whip continuously, but controlled it with exquisite precision, without damaging any of the furnishings in the room.
Zhang Chen now understood the other party's thinking. For the other party, killing something that could threaten him was more important.
Zhang Chen had guessed wrong. He thought that the other party would be overjoyed to receive his message, or even offer to recruit him, but who knew that the other party's first thought was to kill him?
Thinking about it, it made sense. When people face something that might threaten their lives, their first thought is always to kill the other party. Only when they can't kill them do they start to negotiate and recruit.
Just like the imperial court facing rebels, their first thought is to suppress them. Only when they can't suppress them do they try to win them over.
Zhang Chen was very disappointed in Marquis Pingbei, and very disappointed in this damned bureaucratic system. Should common people never have a chance to rise, should they be trampled underfoot forever?
Zhang Chen flashed, used his escape technique to disappear into the room, and then appeared on the street, heading towards the grain store:
"Indeed, Chen Sanliang is right, I was too naive."
Zhang Chen bought some grain, and had just walked out of the grain store when he saw soldiers surging on the street, constantly intercepting passersby for searches.
"No need to think, they must be here to catch me." Zhang Chen looked at the packs of wolf-like soldiers, his figure flashed and disappeared in place, and when he reappeared, he was already outside the city. He saw that his family had already packed their luggage, ready to start their journey.
Zhang Chen's escape technique couldn't carry too many items, but carrying items of the same weight as himself was no problem.
He bought thirty catties of rice, enough for his family to eat for half a month.
"Let's go, let's get on the road, the next meal will be fine rice." Zhang Chen smiled and threw the fine rice on the carriage.
Hearing Zhang Chen's words, the three little ones cheered. Then, Zhang Chen took out a map and looked at it, confirmed the location of the next city, and walked in the direction of that city.
Of course, he wasn't completely following the map. Zhang Chen wasn't stupid, how could he directly follow the map? He only needed to determine the location between the two cities, and then personally walk ahead to confirm the route, before leading his family along the route he had found.
For Zhang Chen, he could transform into a vampire bat, covering hundreds of miles in an hour was no problem, and coupled with being able to easily see towns hundreds of miles away from a high vantage point, so scouting was not difficult for Zhang Chen.
Zhang Chen didn't walk fast, after all, he had to consider the bumpy ride for the women and children in the carriage.
When Zhang Chen arrived at the next city, it was already ten days later. Zhang Chen passed by the city without entering, directly setting up camp in the dense forest outside the city, and then entered the city to inquire about news.
Zhang Chen took the dried meat and hides he had hunted to the street to sell, standing in a corner listening to merchants from north and south gossiping about various rumors.
At this time, a voice entered Zhang Chen's ears, causing Zhang Chen's ears to perk up, listening to a man selling rabbits next to him saying: "Have you heard? Chen Sanliang has entered the pass. A few days ago, in Marquis Pingbei's territory, he defeated three academies in a row, took down the plaques of the three academies, ordered the three academies to disband, and forbade the three academies from preaching and teaching in the future. The deans and teachers of the three academies are not allowed to write for the rest of their lives! All the cultural heritage in Marquis Pingbei's territory is considered to be cut off."
"What? Is there such a thing? Who is Chen Sanliang? He actually forced three academies to close?" A peddler selling sickles next to him immediately became energetic and asked about the gossip.
"I also heard some passing merchants talking about it when I was hunting in the mountains before. That Chen Sanliang is known as the number one person in the academy in the past, but because he was arrogant and rude, he was assigned to the north by the academy, and was constantly suppressed. Later, his wife died tragically, and he defected to the demon race, guiding the demon race to enter the pass and invade the north, tearing apart the White Bone Great Wall defense line. He obtained the support of the demon race and personally stepped into the land of Shenzhou to take revenge, making a great wish to challenge all academies from south to north. If he wins, the academy will take off its plaque, disperse all students, and all the teachers in the academy will not be able to write in this life, and from then on, they will seal their pens and become illiterate. If he loses, he will leave his life in the academy and become a stepping stone for the academy." The peddler selling rabbits said.
Zhang Chen's heart was shaken when he heard this: "Chen Sanliang is playing too big, isn't he? How confident is he in his knowledge to make such a bet? And are the teachers of those academies fools? How can they agree to such a bet that will ruin their future?"
No one would joke about their future.
Zhang Chen's question was exactly the question in the heart of the peddler selling sickles next to him, so he asked: "Those three academies must be crazy, how can they agree to such outrageous conditions?"
"Hehe, what do you know? As the saying goes: There is no first in literature, but there is a second in martial arts. Those who can open academies are extremely confident in their knowledge, how can they be afraid of Chen Sanliang? Once Chen Sanliang challenges them, if they avoid the battle, a shadow will be cast on their hearts, and their cultivation will be ruined, directly scattering their Dao and becoming useless. What is the difference between that and stopping writing?" The peddler selling rabbit meat also had some knowledge: "I heard people say that Chen Sanliang also took out a treasure that the other party could not refuse, it is said to be a legendary innate charter, which is a text formed innately, this is definitely the supreme thing that all scholars cannot resist. In order to see it with their own eyes, they are willing to die."
"Of course, there are also academies that saw the tragic situation of the other two and chose to avoid the battle, but Chen Sanliang directly hung women's clothes in front of the academy gate to humiliate them, no one can bear this kind of humiliation." The hunter's voice was full of sighs.
"You are quite knowledgeable, how do you know about this kind of thing?" The peddler selling sickles looked at the hunter with a surprised face.
"I'm just repeating what I heard from the scholars passing by." The hunter said.
Zhang Chen listened to the two people's discussion, his eyes revealed a dignified look: "Chen Sanliang has simply used the means of playing with people's hearts to the extreme! First, he uses the innate charter to lure them, if the other party is unwilling to cooperate, he simply blocks the door and humiliates them with women's clothes. After such a series of punches, if the other party avoids the battle, their spirit will definitely collapse, questioning their decades of research, thereby shaking their thoughts, and ultimately their Dao heart will collapse, just like Chen Sanliang in the beginning, and they will become useless."
Since this is the case, it is better to go out and fight Chen Sanliang, the two sides will fight to the death, perhaps there is a glimmer of hope.
Anyway, they are going to be ruined, it is better to leave a good reputation in the literary world, and avoid becoming a laughing stock for the world.
"Chen Sanliang's actions are cutting himself off from the literary world, how can he be so bold, how dare he?" Zhang Chen's eyes were full of horror, and after thinking for a moment, he changed his mind: "Perhaps at the moment when Han Suzhen died, Chen Sanliang had already cut himself off from the literary world."
"Chen Sanliang is really not showing any mercy, he is going crazy!" Zhang Chen secretly pondered: "It's just that the human race has suppressed the world for who knows how many years, with extremely deep foundations, how can it be so simple? Chen Sanliang wants to single-handedly challenge the entire Confucian forest, I'm afraid it will provoke some old guys from the Confucian school. Not to mention anything else, the five gentlemen in the academy, in terms of cultural background, are more than a notch higher than Chen Sanliang, otherwise Chen Sanliang would not have been defeated in the debate at the beginning, directly ruining his Dao heart."
"Boy, you are wrong, do you think Chen Sanliang debating the human race is just to take revenge? Chen Sanliang is not so narrow-minded!" Just when various thoughts were running through Zhang Chen's mind, the Great自在天魔 appeared in Zhang Chen's ear to remind him.
"Huh? Does he have any other purpose?" Zhang Chen was stunned when he heard this.
"It's all your fault, kid!" The Great自在天魔 said unhappily.
"My fault? What does it have to do with me?" Zhang Chen's eyes were full of incomprehension.
"Your sentence 'unity of knowledge and action' at the beginning allowed the five gentlemen to gain the essence, and now he has attained the Yang God, dividing the luck of this Dao. The five gentlemen occupy the orthodox position of the academy, and it is not difficult to preach to the world. He has seized a part of Chen Sanliang's luck, and of course Chen Sanliang has to find a way to recover his decline, prevent the five gentlemen from continuing to plunder the Confucian luck, so as to open up the situation in the human race and pass on his own Dao. When he challenges the major academies, it is also a process of preaching, and there will definitely be countless students who will be impressed by his knowledge and become his followers." The Great自在天魔 said.
"What you said is not right, the five gentlemen's Dao is 'unity of knowledge and action', and Chen Sanliang's Dao has been changed to 'enlightening the world', there is no conflict between the two?" Zhang Chen couldn't figure it out in his heart, and a confused look appeared in his eyes.
"How can the Dao dispute be so simple? There is only so much Confucian luck in the world, the Dao dispute between the two is a dispute between two Daos, which is more cruel than a dispute between one Dao. A slight carelessness will lead to eternal doom and the end of the root!" The Great自在天魔 said with a wry smile.
Zhang Chen took a breath of cold air when he heard this, and a thought flashed in his heart: "Then the unity of knowledge and action was originally the result of Chen Sanliang's painstaking research for a Jiazi, now that it has been taken away by the five gentlemen, how can he allow the five gentlemen to become a climate, and allow the five gentlemen to steal his fruits and use them as weapons to deal with himself?"