Chapter 325: The Demon Daoist is dying of starvation?
Chapter 325: The Demon Daoist is dying of starvation? (asking for monthly votes)
Zhenbao actually convened a meeting of the imperial party?
Such a big event? ... Zhao Duan was secretly surprised.
Your Majesty, did you summon me and take him along, or did you summon this kid as the main person, but only took me along for my sake... Lord Ma looked at the eunuch's face, which was full of earnest and enthusiastic flattery, and felt jealous on his thin and long face.
What the two of them were thinking was not something that could be told to outsiders.
Ma Yan immediately stood up and simply arranged for Haitang and others to stay behind.
He and Zhao Du'an did not take a carriage, but each rode a horse, and the three of them, along with the young eunuch, headed straight for the palace.
After arriving at the palace, someone was already waiting there, leading them straight to the palace where the royal party had held their last gathering.
Zhao Duan was a little dazed. This was the second rally he had participated in.
The last time was when the "New Deal" was introduced and a storm was launched against him in the court. He was fighting guerrilla warfare outside the stage, plotting against Li Yinglong, defeating the young cabinet minister, and then going to the palace to catch up with the small court meeting.
"Your Majesty, Lord Ma and Lord Zhao have arrived." The female official who led the way knocked gently on the door and said.
A voice called "Come in" was heard from inside.
The two of them then straightened their clothes and stepped over the threshold. The door creaked open, and it was still the familiar side hall.
The empress sat in the main seat facing the palace door, and on both sides, chairs were placed according to the civil and military positions.
At this moment, at a glance, familiar faces such as the octogenarian Grand Tutor Dong Xuan, the elegant and handsome man in blue, Yuan Li, the serious and straight-backed "God of War" Xue Shence, have all taken their seats.
The atmosphere in the room was depressing and everyone seemed to be troubled.
"Please sit down." Xu Zhenguan seemed to be in a bad mood. He glanced at the two of them and didn't say anything extra.
In public, Zhenbao always treated him in a businesslike manner... Zhao Duan smacked his lips and habitually walked towards the chair closest to the door.
There was no way. With his honorary title of fourth rank, he could only rank last in a meeting of this level.
"Mr. Zhao, just sit here."
Xue Shence spoke unexpectedly, motioning him to sit in the second to last chair.
Zhao Duan was stunned for a moment, then he turned his eyes and compared it with the last time, only to find that there were three more chairs in the room.
The Royal Party is recruiting new members?
How could I not know... Although Zhao Duan was curious, he still nodded and sat down silently.
No one in the room spoke, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.
Next, people arrived one after another. In addition to the old faces from last time, the first one that surprised Zhao Duan was an adjutant of the Qianniu Guard in the imperial palace.
He had only met Zhao Duan a few times. The last time they met was when he dispatched troops to besiege Chai Keqiao, the successor of Qingshan.
"Your Majesty." The burly adjutant of the Qianniu Guard saluted with his fists clasped.
Xu Zhenguan said "hmm" softly and motioned him to take his seat.
The other person walked up to Zhao Duan, still wearing light armor, nodded politely at him, and sat down next to him.
...something is wrong. When will the Imperial Guards' adjutant be able to attend the small court meeting... Zhao Duan raised his eyebrows, and then heard another voice coming from outside:
"The Alchemy Priest of Tianshi Mansion and Kong Hanlin are here!"
The door creaked open.
This time, two newlyweds arrived together, and it seemed that they arrived at the palace at the same time.
Zhao Duan looked curiously, and his eyes were first attracted by a priest.
The priest's robe was dark red in color, with an alchemy furnace embroidered on the chest.
He looked to be about fifty years old, with bright eyes and an air of pride as he walked into the room.
The other Kong Hanlin looked older, with gray hair and a beard, and was a skinny old man.
The two entered the room, one bowed his head, the other folded his hands: "Your Majesty!"
The empress nodded coldly, and the two of them sat down on the other two empty chairs opposite Zhao Duan.
See everyone is here.
Xu Zhenguan's narrow phoenix eyes swept across the whole audience and said:
"I have summoned you all here today. Do you all know why?"
No one answered, so this was the default.
Xu Zhenguan did not wait for anyone to respond, and continued, "What do you think of the reappearance of the bewitching demon?"
When leaders hold a meeting, even if they have set the tone, they must first solicit opinions and listen to speeches.
Zhao Duan pricked up his ears and saw his cheap senior brother Xiao Ma speak first:
"Your Majesty, may I ask if this is confirmed? Is it really that evil Taoist?"
This is a question that everyone is concerned about!
Xu Zhenguan said calmly: "It is not certain yet, but I have verified the seal, and it is indeed the aura of the demon."
Everyone looked at each other with serious expressions.
The empress of the pseudo-heavenly realm determined that it was the aura of the same person. Unless it was an extremely rare situation, the fact that he had faked his death and returned was probably confirmed.
"Your Majesty! Regardless of whether this evildoer is real or not, let's assume it is true. Now that he has returned to the capital and announced it in this way, it is undoubtedly a provocation to the court!
This person was a member of Jian Wen's gang in the past, and today he may appear as a member of the Kuangfu Society rebel gang! In my opinion, he may be another traitor who comes to rectify the rebel gangs in the city and try to undermine the court! "
Grand Tutor Dong Xuan spoke in a deep voice, his russet face showing a heavy expression.
Yuan Li nodded and agreed:
"What Grand Master said is absolutely true. The Kuangfu Society in the capital has been leaderless for a long time. Previously, they sent Frost Sword and Thousand-Faced God, but they were both eliminated by Zhao Jisi, and the rebel faction was forced to go dormant.
However... the rebels will never give up. The branch office in the capital is of great significance to the rebels!
Zhuang Xiaocheng has suffered repeated defeats, so he will definitely not make the same mistake again. If he really has the demon card, it is not surprising that he plays it now, hoping that he will take action and regroup. "
Xue Shence said coldly: "I am more curious, what is the purpose of this demon making such a loud announcement? Is he like that Thousand-Faced God, trying to make the whole court panic?"
Ma Yan hesitated for a moment and said, "That may not be the case."
"Oh?" Everyone looked over.
Ma Yan explained: "You all should know this bewitching demon's character better than I do. When he was in the capital, he was arrogant and lawless, and he would take revenge for any slight.
Even if he was not completely dead when he was "killed", he used some method to escape, but no matter what method he used, he must have been seriously injured. The fact that he has been missing for nearly three years and there is no news at all can also indirectly prove this judgment.
Given this man's temper, if he wasn't hiding to recuperate, why would he show up now?
If that was really the case…Now that he’s back, I’m afraid he’s holding back a lot of anger, and the actions he made in public announcements are indeed consistent with this person’s character.
Therefore, in my opinion, his declaration is more like a warning of revenge, which comes more from personal interests rather than the interests of the society.
In other words, in your opinion, based on the character this demon has shown in the past, is he willing to work diligently and be a helmsman, and care about others?"
Lawless, vindictive... Why do I feel like you are describing me... Zhao Duan was secretly complaining, feeling like he was being reflected!
Ma Yan's words caused all the ministers to nod in agreement:
"That makes sense."
"Given the temperament of this demon, who is extremely selfish, the possibility of revenge is indeed greater."
Soon, everyone reached almost unanimous agreement.
It is believed that the return of the Great Yu State Master this time is most likely for revenge against the imperial court.
Xu Zhenguan nodded slightly to show his agreement:
"I thought so too, so I summoned you here today to discuss a solution."
Although it was called a discussion, Zhao Duan could tell from her words and expressions that Zhenbao already had an idea.
Today's meeting is more about unifying opinions and calming people's hearts than discussing. He was moved and tried to speak:
"Your Majesty, may I ask what abilities this demon has? Why is he so frightening? I am a humble servant, and my understanding of this person is only superficial. I beg for your guidance."
……
……
Just as the imperial party’s small court meeting began in the palace.
Beijing.
Outside a tailor shop, on a long street, a Taoist priest walked slowly among the crowd of people.
The Taoist was about fifty years old, wearing a black and white checkered robe, his hair fixed with a peach wood hairpin, and a spade sword slung across his back.
Two yellowed eyebrows hung on a slightly weathered face with slightly three-dimensional features.
The old Taoist priest looked dusty and seemed to have come from a long way away. He walked among the crowd neither fast nor slow.
A pair of deep eyes seemed to casually pass over the faces of the people walking on the street.
But few people noticed that deep in his pupils, there was a vortex that was slowly shrinking.
At the same time, a wisp of air that was invisible to the naked eye flew out from the center of the eyebrows of the paper face and was swallowed into the mansion by the old Taoist in a breath.
The old Taoist swallowed all the way, his face turned slightly red, and he murmured in a drunken tone:
"In this vast world, the desires are the strongest in this place of goodness, it is intoxicating."
He stopped.
Turning around, he looked towards a clothing store on the street.
Because it was morning and the shop had just opened, there were not many customers in the shop.
The middle-aged shopkeeper was holding a feather duster and gently patting the clothes hanging in the store to brush away the dust.
The shopkeeper turned around and looked at the old Taoist priest who walked into the store. He looked dusty but gave him a faint sense of creepiness. He put on a smile:
"This Taoist priest wants to buy some clothes?"
The former Great Yu State Master, now the Bewitching Demon Daoist, stared at him quietly and said with a smile: "I'm looking for someone."
The shopkeeper was startled and asked cautiously, "Who are you looking for?"
The two eyeballs of the bewitching demon suddenly turned into pitch-black "bewitching pupils", and the sound was like the echo of a valley, layer upon layer, coming from all directions:
"I want to know the information about a few old acquaintances. Oh, and that Zhao Duan. My national teacher is very interested in him."
The middle-aged man who was the contact person for the Kuangfu Society branch had a dull face, as if his soul had been taken away.
He walked woodenly towards the shop door and closed it.
……
……
Hearing this, everyone looked over. Xu Zhenguan was not surprised and nodded:
"That's a good question. I'm sure some of you are still confused. Mochou, please explain it."
Next to him, Mo Zhaorong, who was acting as the "recorder", spoke softly:
"This demon claims to have no name or surname, and now he is called 'bewitching'. His magic lies in the word 'bewitching', and he is very good at bewitching people.
Generally there are two abilities. One is to talk with people and manipulate people's thoughts and ideas to serve them. However, this ability is most effective for mortals. The higher the cultivation and martial arts power, the more difficult it is.
Moreover, this kind of bewitching has a time limit. If a person is bewitched and does not continue to be bewitched, the spell will lose its effect in about three days and the person will wake up on his own. "
Can you manipulate people to your advantage through chatting?
The ancient version of the hypnotist... Zhao Duan was secretly surprised.
This kind of magic is simply impossible to guard against. Once it gets out of control, any official who is bewitched by it would become a spy, wouldn’t he?
Well, although it’s only short-term…it’s also very deadly.
Mochou continued:
"However, this kind of verbal bewitching can be guarded against, and outsiders can more or less detect the changes in the bewitched person. The truly powerful one is the latter kind, 'entering a dream'."
"Dream?"
"That's right," Mo Chou glanced at Zhao Duan and said:
"After making certain arrangements, this person can quietly enter the target's dream as long as he is close enough to the target, and make the target recall the deepest and most important memories in his heart... and devour the target's dream."
Zhao Duan was stunned: "Swallow? What does that mean?"
Mo Chou sighed and said:
"After this demon 'died', Your Majesty also carefully studied the magic of his lineage and found that the way he increased his cultivation was more like absorbing people's 'desires'. Everyone has desires, but when they are awake, they will restrain and suppress them, and know what they can do and what they cannot do.
But in dreams, one's guard will be lowered, and this evil spirit will induce people to dream and recall various things in life.
Those memories contain people's "seven emotions and six desires", and he will devour and eat away at these desires to strengthen himself.
The result of this action is to devour dreams... well, or to be more precise, devour people's memories."
It can be like this... Wait, is this really a real magic?
Why is it that the more I listen, the more bizarre it sounds... Yes, this guy must be an evil sorcerer, right? That's why he is called "evil"... Did the old emperor hire an evil sorcerer as his imperial teacher? Absolutely...
Zhao Duan opened his mouth, swallowed his saliva, and asked tentatively: "Is there no way to counter it?"
He was a little worried. How could a person resist if he was attacked while sleeping?
Mo Chou glanced at him again and said slowly:
"Yes, the simplest way is that you have to be much stronger than him. In addition, if you are determined enough, you can also try to wake up from the dream. The price is that part of your memory will be devoured, causing you to forget some things...
Oh, there is another way, that is, your soul strength or memory is greater than his.
Well, in theory, the number of dreams he can devour at one time is limited. As long as you have enough memories and the dreams are large enough, you can stuff him to death."
When she said the latter sentence, there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
How can a young man in his twenties with a simple life experience, who has accumulated a lot of memories, compete with a demon who has lived for who knows how many years, has rich life experience, and has devoured countless dream memories of others?
Therefore, the method Mochou gave at the end was purely a tease to him.
The rest of the people didn't take it seriously at all. After all, the word "theoretically" basically eliminated the feasibility.
However, Zhao Duan did not say anything, but was a little distracted.
Having lived two lives, how much information did Zhao Duan receive in his previous life as a modern person over the past few decades?
In the era of information explosion, the information he received from the Internet and in reality, and the huge amount of memory he accumulated... are simply unimaginable to ancient people.
It was difficult for the ancients to leave the county where they lived. They would spend their entire lives wandering around one place. So how many landscapes would they have seen?
The ancients could say they were well-read after reading five carts of bamboo slips. The amount of content Zhao Duan acquired by just watching a few short videos exceeds this order of magnitude.
Well, don't worry about whether it's garbage or not, just tell me whether it's a lot or not...
So, if we say:
As long as he has enough memories and a big enough dream, he can be stuffed to death... Then I... seem to...
It's really possible...
-
ps: I'm a little stuck, so I'll set a flag to write more tomorrow. I'm shamelessly asking for monthly votes~
(End of this chapter)