Chapter 312: The 2nd Stage of the Path to the Martial God Begins: The Armored Red-robed Sorceress
Chapter 312: The Second Stage of the Path to the Martial God Begins: The Armored Red-robed Sorceress
Dalang is back!
When Zhao Duan stepped into the room surrounded by servants and maids, Eugene Hua and her daughter smiled sincerely.
In this world where travel is inconvenient, some people may never meet again once they separate.
So when Zhao Duan learned ancient poetry in his previous life, farewell and homesickness were always major themes.
Moreover, because the meeting was hard-won, the letter sent from afar was full of weight.
Zhao Duan has not been in this world for long and does not have a deep understanding of this.
He only knew that his return home caused a "sensation" in the Zhao Mansion.
All the servants in the house came out to watch. The first thing the mistress asked was, "Have you eaten?" When she learned that Zhao Duan had just returned from the palace and had not had lunch yet, she immediately ordered the cook to light the fire.
Then, Zhao Duan was welcomed into the hall, and naturally there was a round of greetings and inquiries about his well-being.
My aunt was wearing a plain double-breasted dress embroidered with plump crabapple flowers.
The girl was wearing a goose yellow skirt, which made her look particularly elegant and graceful.
The two girls surrounded Zhao Duan, first looking him in the eye and asking him questions such as whether he had eaten well and whether he had lost weight. Zhao Duan then took out the local specialties he had brought back from Taicang as gifts and recounted some of his experiences along the way.
As for work matters, he only gave a brief account of them, and did not mention the incident of being ambushed at all.
So, when the cook brought out the hot meal, Zhao Duan ate it with relish.
Although he had stopped in cities along the way during the journey, it was only when he returned home that he felt his feet touch the ground and the hot food enter his stomach. After eating and drinking his fill, Zhao got up and went back to his bedroom to rest under the pretext of needing to rest.
……
East wing.
Eugene Hua and Zhao Pan walked back to the room. The beautiful woman took off her coat, sat cross-legged on the bed, and gently pounded her well-proportioned and slender legs to relieve the fatigue from running around.
The cleaning girl sat at the round table, excitedly unpacking the specialties brought back by Zhao Duan, took out a jade bracelet with ice flowers inside from the gift box, put it on her wrist and played with it, saying happily:
"Mom, do you think it looks good?"
Eugene glanced at her daughter and said with a smile:
"It's so beautiful. Look at this precious bracelet. Don't let it get damaged. Put it away. I'll save it for you as a dowry in the future."
"..." Zhao Pan kept silent with a tense face, silently covering his wrist with his sleeve, determined not to take off the bracelet, and said:
"Mother, do you think that my elder brother and His Majesty have that kind of relationship?"
"Ah?" Eugene paused as she pinched her calf and stared at her daughter in surprise: "What are you talking about?"
Zhao Pan was shrewd, his eyes rolled, and he said quietly:
"People outside have always said that Big Brother and His Majesty have that relationship, but we are family and know our own business. I don't think it's the case. How many nights did Big Brother stay in the palace? When he went to the palace, it was mostly during the day to report on official business...
Also, I heard people say that men and women become different after doing that, but I don’t know how they are different, I just feel that there is no change. Mom, you have experience, tell me, is it a rumor? "
Eugene Hua spat and said angrily, "What do you think about all day long, you young girl? Stop butting in on your elder brother and His Majesty's affairs."
"I'm just asking. I'm not stupid and I won't tell anyone else." Zhao Pan puffed up his cheeks, which had become rounder due to the autumn weight gain.
Eugene Hua said nothing, just ending the topic.
While rubbing his folded calves, his mind couldn't help but wander:
Dalang... doesn't look like he has ever tasted meat.
……
……
in the bedroom.
After eating and drinking his fill, Zhao Duan took a quick shower and then climbed comfortably into bed.
“I don’t know how Gao Lian’s case will develop, but Li Yanfu will definitely not let it go.
Alas, the court finally calmed down... Never mind, it has nothing to do with me. Since Zhenbao said she would handle it, then let it be. If I really have to go to court tomorrow and answer questions in public, I would be a little nervous..."
Zhao Duan's mind was in a mess and he couldn't fall asleep.
I simply got up, sat cross-legged on the bed with my five hearts facing the sky, and started today's practice.
Cultivation is like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat.
Can't be wasted.
Breathe in and out slowly, and visualize the second picture of the Martial God's Path, "The Six Chapter Sutra", in your mind.
According to experience, he would enter a dark place without any light, and then wake up after the Qi in his body had circulated a complete circle.
However, this time, when he floated into the "Six Chapter Sutra", the darkness in front of his eyes gradually dissipated, and scenery appeared in his field of vision!
Zhao Duan was stunned!
Finally, there was a change? Did he gain a firm foothold in the Divine Chapter Realm?
What a coincidence, there has been progress as soon as I returned to Beijing.
Suppressing his surprise, he looked around curiously and found that he was in a desolate woodland. In the distance was a remote suburb and the sky was covered with dark clouds.
The wind is cold and the time is probably late autumn.
"What is this place... I don't know if Old Xu is still in the Six Chapter Sutra..." With experience, Zhao Duan was not panicked at all. He took a few steps forward and walked out of the sparse woodland. The view in front of him suddenly opened up.
In the field of vision, there stood a lonely and dilapidated temple in front of him.
The dilapidated temple looks more like a Taoist temple, but its architectural style is slightly different from that of today. It is much older and it is unknown how many months it has been abandoned.
The paint on the gate was mottled and black, and covered with corrosion holes. The lanterns on the eaves had fallen to the ground, leaving only the bamboo frame.
The temple plaque was covered with cobwebs and hung diagonally under the eaves, but the words on it seemed to have been destroyed by human beings. The steps in front of the temple gate were cracked and weeds grew in the cracks.
"This should be the first stop in the Six Chapters Sutra. Hmm, the building is ancient. Hmm, it must be in the style of six hundred years ago. Could it be some place that Old Xu has seen before? And it was painted in?"
Zhao Duan walked to the temple gate curiously, climbed up the steps, raised his hand and pushed hard.
"Squeak-"
What came into view was a cold and secluded courtyard, covered with weeds and a collapsed alchemy furnace in the corner.
His eyes followed the path that was almost covered by weeds and arrived at the main hall that had been ravaged by countless years.
The door of the palace was tightly closed, and the two pillars outside looked as if they had been hacked and chiseled with knives and axes, with marks carved into them and destroying the original couplets.
"Is anyone there?" Zhao Duan felt a chill in his heart for no reason and was amazed. This place has a strong gloomy atmosphere.
I shouted loudly twice, but there was no response. Only two crows flew up from behind the temple, flapped their wings, cackled, and flew up to the branches, looking down.
"No one? The style of these six chapters is a bit different from the previous one... Could it be that the NPC is in the main hall?"
Zhao Duan complained that he was used to treating the scrolls of the Martial God Path as a game.
His feet were already heading towards the main hall, but just before he reached the steps of the main hall.
Suddenly, a cool breeze accompanied by a strong sense of danger came from behind!
It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up in an instant!
"Something's wrong!"
Zhao Duan turned around suddenly, and then his pupils suddenly narrowed.
He saw a pair of red embroidered shoes floating in the air behind him at eye level, and the owner of the shoes seemed to be a woman.
At this moment, the embroidered shoes slowly fell from the sky, and he could clearly see a section of the ankle as white as jade above the shoes.
Further up, there are two white legs, straight and slender, which are soon covered by the falling red skirt.
"What female ghost..." Zhao Duan felt his breathing quicken, and his whole body seemed to be locked by some force, making it difficult for him to move. He tried his best to raise his head and finally caught a glimpse of the true form of the woman who fell from the sky.
It was a classical woman in a dark red wedding gown. The gown looked like dried blood, with golden auspicious clouds and auspicious beasts painted on it.
However, his face was covered with a dark golden mask that covered most of his face. The shape was simple and mysterious, with only half of his chin exposed.
In the woman's hand, she was holding a scale rod, which was painted in red and gold. A tassel with a green jade ring tied to it hung from one end of the handle.
At this moment, the sorceress in wedding dress descended from the sky and looked down at Zhao Duan coldly.
With a cold look in his eyes, he poked the scale bar in his hand into Zhao Duan's skull, causing him to feel a sharp pain all over his body. Then his eyes went dark and his consciousness became confused.
He was forcibly knocked out of his meditation state.
Before Zhao Duan was kicked out of the Six Chapters Sutra, he only heard a faint, extremely annoyed voice:
“I’m… so… annoyed…”
……
Zhao Mansion, in the bedroom.
"Huff, huff..." Zhao Duan suddenly woke up from meditation, gasping for breath, with beads of sweat on his forehead.
Only after confirming that he had "returned" did he breathe a sigh of relief and recover from the state of being killed.
"If I'm not mistaken, my skull was opened just now..."
Zhao Duan touched his intact forehead, his mouth twitching, "Other people's scales are used to lift the veil, you use it to lift the skull, right... Old Xu, what are these things you painted? Female ghosts? Ancient sorcerers? Anyway, they don't look like warriors..."
Zhao Duan cursed and cursed. Through the brief contact, he judged two points:
First, the "woman in wedding dress" in the scroll is not a ghost, but most likely a powerful sorcerer, because the fact that she was immobilized in the courtyard, and the faint fluctuations of magic power are typical methods of a sorcerer.
Of course...why doesn't a sorcerer cast spells to kill people, but uses physical means...well, considering that the path of the God of War also involves the dual cultivation of magic and martial arts, it is understandable.
Second, this should be the practice content of the "Six Chapter Sutra".
"The last painting, "The God of War", was to let me follow Old Xu for a while, imitate him, learn from him, and cultivate my mind."
"This Six Chapters Sutra obviously involves 'battle practice'. If I'm not mistaken, the training content is to defeat this ancient sorceress... Tsk, the more I look at this, the more it looks like a game, or a soul-based game... Damn, I'm not good at this. Black Goku only watches others fight and doesn't have any ideas of his own..."
Zhao Duan sighed. Although he was complaining, he was secretly excited.
What he really lacked was the experience of fighting against strong men, and this scroll provided him with that experience.
"I just don't know which ancient powerful figure in history this sorceress with the scale is from. Well, Old Xu certainly wouldn't make it up. She must be an opponent he once fought against, right?"
"Wait... golden mask..."
Zhao Duan was suddenly startled, thinking back to the unique dark golden visor on the face of the female sorceress in wedding dress, and couldn't help but think of the armored female shadow guard he had seen in Taicang Mansion.
(End of this chapter)