bookpub Chapter 15 Zhang Tianxing
Chapter 15 Zhang Tianxing
late at night.
A figure with goat horns on his head and a silver, grotesquely smiling mask on his face was followed by two Beggars' Sect disciples with six bags of weapons, acting as his guards.
The three arrived at the side of a desolate cliff.
A withered little poplar tree stands alone at the foot of a cliff sheltered from the wind.
The moonlight shone on the twisted branches, casting menacing shadows on the rock face.
The scene was extremely striking.
The goat's horn stopped in place, and a Beggar Clan disciple stepped forward and gently pulled the poplar tree upwards. A hidden door opened with a rumble on the cliff face.
A rich aroma of Sanlejiang (a type of fermented medicinal herb) wafted out from inside the door.
Along with this, the sounds of martial artists practicing, daggers being thrown, cards being played with leaves, gamblers shouting excitedly, and dice hitting ceramic bowls rang out.
The goat horn's voice was hoarse, as if it were deliberately faking it.
He snorted coldly: "Turn off the lights."
In an instant, the sound seemed to possess a magical power, humming out through the silver mask, and all sounds in the cave ceased abruptly, and the candlelight went out.
Everyone stood up and looked towards the door.
All that could be seen was the outline of a goat-man, his entire body covered by a hooded cloak.
He had his back to the moonlight.
Only the silver, grotesquely smiling mask was faintly visible.
To everyone else, such a disguise was meaningless, because those ram's horns were simply too conspicuous.
Besides, they only recognize masks anyway.
Nobody cares who's behind the mask.
"Tong Shisan, why did you stop the purge of Zhang Tianxing?"
Upon hearing this, a minor leader wearing a bronze smiling mask quickly stepped forward to reply:
"Silver Head, we haven't sent anyone recently, so we don't have enough human blood to make Blood Burning Pills. Without Blood Burning Pills, we're no match for that [Evil Demon]."
"It's just human blood, then go and get some!"
"Last time we wiped out that mountain valley, you said we were too high-profile, so you executed the leader, Boss Wang, and said that without your orders, we were not allowed to approach the prefectural or county towns or the nearby mountain valleys."
"Then why don't you send a letter requesting orders?"
"You also said before that important matters must be discussed in person, but we can't be near the state or county capitals, so..."
The goat's horns were filled with bitterness.
If he hadn't known that his silver mask gave him absolute control over the bronze mask and the rest of the gang, he would have been in a different situation.
He would think so.
The other party is deliberately paying lip service while secretly going against it.
At this moment, he fell into deep doubt.
Could they really assassinate Zhang Tianxing with this swarm of insects?
early morning.
Mohai Caves.
The massive Singing Sand Dunes blocked the biting cold winds, adding warmth to the caves where everyone lived.
Zhang Tianxing gets up at 7:00 AM every day.
He looked to be around 40 years old.
But he had silver hair and deep-set eyes, so much so that most people couldn't tell his exact age.
After a quick wash.
He first walked to a wall, as usual.
On the wall of this bedroom, there are some red-lettered hemp paper, all written in the script of the former Great Qian Dynasty.
The content is shocking to read:
"In the 763rd year of the Daqian era, the barbarian army broke through Liangzhou. When humans saw the demons, they had to bow their heads and bend their waists, and could not look them directly in the eye."
"In 766 of the Daqian era, the barbarian army captured Ganzhou and Suzhou, and changed the hairstyle, language, and clothing of the Daqian people."
"In the 776th year of the Daqian era, the barbarian army broke through Guazhou, and the able-bodied men of the human race were enslaved, while the old and weak had their hands cut off, their eyes gouged out, and were abandoned."
"In the 781st year of the Daqian era, the barbarian army captured Yizhou, and Governor Yuan died for his country."
……
Every word was written in tears, covering an entire wall.
At the other end of the bedroom, there was a simple altar with five ebony tablets on it.
Up, four, one.
The four memorial tablets above are respectively—
"Yan", "Li", "Yang", "Guo"
Four surnames.
The bottommost tablet only contains the character "Zhang".
Clearly, these are the memorial tablets of the last four martial saints of the human race, as well as the ancestral tablets of his Zhang clan ancestors.
After washing his hands, Zhang Tianxing respectfully raised three incense sticks, the smoke curling upwards, carrying a faint sandalwood fragrance.
Unlike his usual silence,
He murmured a prayer today:
"With the protection of the four Martial Saints above and the ancestors of the Zhang family, may the flame of our human race be passed down from generation to generation, and may life continue forever."
Gao Huang, who had been guarding him, was somewhat surprised to hear this. His master, though he was always concerned about the world, rarely prayed so openly.
So Gao Huang couldn't help but ask softly:
"Master, why don't you pray to your predecessors for your early breakthrough to the Martial Saint realm, or for the success of this uprising?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Tianxing smiled and said:
"Each generation has its own things to do. There's no need to trouble our ancestors with everything, nor to leave things for future generations."
His words carried a gentle and serene smile.
Upon hearing this, Gao Huang felt secretly ashamed.
"This disciple has learned much."
He was filled with emotion.
The longer I follow my teacher, the more I feel that my own mind is unstable and my cultivation is insufficient.
At this moment, he recalled some past events.
The scene of my first meeting with my teacher.
At that time, he lived in the Gao family.
Originally, they were just an insignificant small family in the outer city of Shazhou.
On one occasion, Gao Huang's father finally received an invitation to a banquet from the Zhang family. He was able to enter the inner city of Shazhou with the invitation and stay in the Zhang family's guest room.
At that time, Gao Huang was quite young, 12 years old, and full of vigor and temper.
Although things aren't good right now either.
But one thing at a time, things would have been even worse then.
At that time, he saw that everyone at the banquet, including the Zhang family as the hosts, could not touch their chopsticks or even talk loudly before the demon guests arrived.
When the "distinguished guests" arrived, these demon nobles were arrogant and their words were full of sarcasm.
The words spoken to the humans present were all words of contempt.
At that moment, Gao Huang picked up the bowl in his hand, intending to do something, but his father, who was prepared, pressed down on the bowl, covered his mouth, and pinned him to the chair, rendering him unable to move.
After the demons left, he became angrier the more he thought about it.
They actually went straight to the building where Lord Zhang Tianxing lived and started cursing him as a "traitor" and saying things like "may he die a horrible death."
The guards initially allowed him to approach because he was a guest, delicate like a girl, and seemed harmless.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out they were there to cause trouble.
They needed to capture Gao Huang at that time.
As it turned out, Zhang Tianxing opened the second-floor window in time and spoke up to stop the guards from arresting people.
Then close the window and ignore it.
Seeing that Zhang Tianxing closed the window and ignored him, the young Gao Huang felt insulted and cursed for another quarter of an hour.
Zhang Tianxing finally reached his breaking point.
So he opened the window again, looked down from above, and, holding a teapot, personally engaged in a verbal battle with the young Gao Huang.
The guards stood still and listened as the two sides hurled insults at each other for an hour.
In the end, Gao Huang's mouth was dry and his head was too tired from holding it up, so he was no match for Zhang Tianxing.
Then he slunk away.
Later, Gao's father overheard the servants of the Zhang family discussing the matter and learned about it. He gave the young Gao Huang a good beating, grabbed his ear, and made him kneel down and apologize to Zhang Tianxing.
Zhang Tianxing said that we shouldn't make things too difficult for the child.
Gao Huang still remembers his words to this day—
"The future of humanity needs precisely such spirited young men!"
Upon learning that the young Gao Huang was practicing martial arts, Zhang Tianxing specially gifted him a copy of "The Nine Ranks of the Great Qian Dynasty" written in the Great Qian script as encouragement.
After that, between the two...
Some more things happened.
Zhang Tianxing disregarded past grievances and secretly accepted Gao Huang as his last disciple.
It is unknown to outsiders.
Gao Huang touched the book in his arms and put away his memories.
He then presented the daily official documents and confidential letters.
Zhang Tianxing could read ten lines at a glance, his eyes sharp as lightning.
I reviewed and commented on each one.
In particular, there was a letter in the middle, delivered by Gao Huang's third disciple. The letter said that he had infiltrated the assassination organization.
This organization was originally a group of bandits who were at odds with each other within the sandbar area. Now these bandits have been brought together, and it seems that they are controlled by a demon race.
The demon race gave them some pills that could greatly enhance their strength in the short term, called Blood Burning Pills, but after taking them, they could only live for a maximum of one hour.
"I see. Take a look at this... I'll have someone check later to see if there's any possibility that the recipe for the Pure Yang Pill has been leaked."
Gao Huang bowed and accepted it with both hands.
Zhang Tianxing saw that he had finished reading the official documents and secret letters.
It's time for cultivation again.
He solemnly unfurled an ancient scroll.
While watching, visualize.
These past few days, Gao Huang has been looking at this visualization diagram countless times with his teacher.
This is a typical diagram for visualizing the Eight Trigrams of the Primordial Heaven.
Of course, it is no ordinary thing that it has been preserved so well under the harsh rule of the demon race.
Moreover, there is a special artistic conception and charm in the brushstrokes, which is not just a simple display of hexagrams.
Once you reach the fifth rank in martial arts, you can sense it to some extent.
But only those who possess both superior martial arts skills and superior painting skills can create such a work.
Such a fundamental diagram is most effective for martial artists to visualize. It is only through the inheritance of human clans that it has been preserved intact.
The diagram shows eight trigrams: Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, and Kun, along with their corresponding characters.
Under the rule of the demon race, the human race has not produced a martial saint for hundreds of years.
Zhang Tianxing's ancestors had never produced a Martial Saint; this picture was borrowed from the Guo family.
The martial arts breakthrough method he is currently practicing was deduced from some of the Guo family's remaining manuscripts as he practiced.
After reaching the first rank, the Guo family's martial arts technique requires dispersing the power and starting over in order to reach the Martial Saint realm.
This was indeed somewhat risky and rushed, but for the sake of the great cause he desired, he had no choice but to take the risk.
Gao Huang also advised him to observe the situation further and not rush things. At the very least, he could first visualize something interesting, and then dissipate his power later.
But Zhang Tianxing knew that, according to old records, no human had ever achieved the Martial Saint status after the age of 50.
And he is already 46 years old.
We can't wait any longer...
More importantly, Zhang Tianxing, as a close friend of Master Lalong, had full confidence in his mission to assassinate the Demon Emperor.
If it's said to be a hundred days, then the Demon Emperor will surely die within a hundred days!
If he succeeds, the court will surely be torn apart by the Lun clan and the monk clan, which will be the perfect opportunity for him to start his rebellion.
Even though the timing was so good.
There isn't a single Martial Saint among the human race.
After the uprising, it will likely only be suppressed again.
As the number one martial artist among humans, he has an unshirkable responsibility.
I have to push myself!
He forcibly dispersed his power to increase his determination to fight to the death, but his progress was still stuck on this visualization diagram.
Although the Great Qian language is still commonly used within the powerful clans of the human race.
However, the meanings of many similar obscure characters remain unknown. Some legacies of previous dynasties were ultimately severed under the decade-long, unwavering control of the demon race.
For example, these eight characters in the Bagua diagram.
After several twists and turns, and through his own study and contemplation, Zhang Tianxing finally figured out the meaning of the six characters.
Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen.
Ze (lake), Huo (fire), Lei (thunder), Feng (wind), Shui (water), Shan (mountain).
However, he couldn't grasp the essence of Qian and Kun.
"Qian is the name of a country, which is certainly prestigious, but what is its original meaning as a hexagram? And what is Kun? I've never heard of it before!"
I thought about it for a long time, but I still couldn't figure it out.
So Zhang Tianxing rolled up the visualization diagram, held it in his hand, and asked:
"I heard I have two of my young apprentices who have come?"
"Yes."
"Let's go see the children and change our mood."
On the way, Gao Huang explained to the teacher that Ye Qi was a girl who was undergoing skin resurfacing training, and it was not convenient for her to visit.
"Then go to the storeroom and get a dose of medicine to relax muscles and improve blood circulation. Deliver it to Ye Qi later. Let's go see the other one, Liu Sheng, right?"
Gao Huang nodded in agreement and explained to the teacher along the way some of Liu Sheng's "glorious" deeds in Yueya County.
This made Zhang Tianxing laugh out loud.
It even explained how Liu Sheng adapted his skin-smoothing method to local conditions.
It can now be almost called Liu's improved method, Zhang's improved method, or Yan's skin resurfacing method.
Zhang Tianxing also praised Liu Sheng for his quick wit.
His tightly furrowed brows relaxed considerably.
When we arrive.
Liu Sheng is currently engaged in a battle of wits with Sha Zi.
Until a group of soldiers escorted Zhang Tianxing, who was dressed in civilian clothes with silver hair, as he walked over.
Upon seeing this, the eldest disciple, Lu You, immediately bowed and said, "Greetings, Grandmaster."
Liu Sheng, dark as an arrow, also sprang from the sand and imitated him, saying, "Greetings, Grandmaster!"
He was secretly alarmed, because he had already learned the identity of the old man in front of him from his senior brother in the past two days.
Shazhou Jiedushi (military governor of Shazhou).
The leader of the rebel army.
The number one martial artist among the human race today.
Zhang Tianxing.
His master, Gao Huang, was merely his junior apprentice, and he himself was his grand-apprentice.
They managed to latch onto such a powerful patron without even knowing it.
Liu Sheng was very satisfied with his father's judgment.
You should know that no one in Crescent Moon County, not even the entire street of martial arts schools, knows that Master Gao Huang has this connection.
After all, this is outside Shazhou City, under the rule of the demon race. Rashly revealing Zhang Tianxing's name might have the opposite effect.
Therefore, the few true disciples of Bajiquan who knew the truth kept their mouths shut.
If it weren't for this unexpected blessing in disguise, because his master was tied up, he and Ye Qi probably wouldn't have found out until much later.
But even if I go back, I won't be able to brag about it to others.
Zhang Tianxing was also very approachable, sitting on the ground.
He was approachable and cheerful, chatting with Liu Sheng for a few minutes. He even carefully observed Liu Sheng's movements as he laid larvae in the sand.
And you know what? It actually looks pretty convincing!
Seeing that they were getting along well, Zhang Tianxing actually told Liu Sheng this story.
The story is quite simple.
The content is roughly as follows—
Long ago, there were two large families.
They are the Qian family and the Bo family, respectively.
The two families are related by marriage.
The patriarch of the Qian family passed away, leaving the family without its pillar of support.
The Bo family seized the Qian family's daughters as wives, forced the Qian family's weak sons to change their surnames and become their servants, and made them all change their ancestral clothing, hairstyles, and dialects. Those who disobeyed were all killed.
However, some of the Qian family's descendants, after growing up, remembered how they came to be and believed that the Bo family would never truly let them go. They wanted to rebel and become independent.
Other descendants persuaded their brothers who wanted to rebel, even though the two sides had a blood feud in the past.
But hundreds of years have passed.
What grudge can't be forgiven?
We're much wealthier now than before, so fighting would be a complete waste. Isn't maintaining the status quo just fine?
Thus, the descendants of the Qian family have been arguing ever since.
The story is over.
Zhang Tianxing then asked Liu Sheng:
"Now both branches of the Qian family's descendants are asking for my opinion; I'm getting old and can't keep up with the times, so I can't make a decision. I'd like to ask you young people for your opinion."
Liu Sheng listened and listened.
His face began to turn serious.
He knew, of course, that a dignified Marshal Zhang wouldn't be so bored as to come here and tell him a completely fictional story.
He even had a vague feeling that the answer to this question would affect his future prospects.
His brain was working at lightning speed.
Liu Sheng thought of many things, including the legends and deeds related to Zhang Tianxing, and the nearly lost Great Qian script that he had seen yesterday.
He was quite confident that he could deduce that Zhang Tianxing treated Daqian and Dafan as two separate families, which led to the story he had just witnessed.
What else is there to say?!
Thinking of this, Liu Sheng calmly replied:
"Although I'm illiterate, I did sit and play at the entrance of the academy when I was a child, and I heard the teacher say, 'Can a family avenge their ancestors after nine generations? Even after a hundred generations, they must avenge them!' Moreover, I suspect that if the Bo family had the means back then, they would have wiped out all the men of the Qian family, but for some reason they couldn't. How could they possibly trust the descendants of the Qian family now?"
What Liu Sheng actually meant was, "Can revenge still be taken after nine generations? It can be taken after a hundred generations."
But he realized yesterday that the Great Qian script exists in this world, so he carefully considered the matter and did not dare to speak the original text. Instead, he used the tone of a "schoolteacher" to translate it.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Tianxing remained silent at first.
He quickly laughed heartily: "Good, what a principled teacher! What a knowledgeable child!"
Gao Huang quickly kept a close eye on his teacher, knowing that Zhang Tianxing was like that.
When I see a junior I like, I get so happy that I want to give them something as a gift.
He was genuinely afraid, so the teacher casually handed Liu Sheng the diagram of the Eight Trigrams of the Primordial Chaos.
Zhang Tianxing, of course, had no idea that Gao Huang, standing beside him, was thinking about these things.
He waved his hand dismissively:
"All the expenses Liu Sheng needed for his training before reaching the Skin Polishing Realm were paid from my salary."
"Thank you, Grandmaster!"
Liu Sheng suddenly thought of Ye Qi, so he decided to give it a try.
Then I asked if it could be waived as well.
Zhang Tianxing naturally agreed.
Liu Sheng was so moved he almost cried. How could these elders from his sect be so generous?
Now, I can never repay the great general's kindness!