I am a prince in Zhutian Films

Chapter 12 Wandering around Kyoto

When I was a child, I always felt that time passed very slowly, and the days passed by one by one.

When you grow up, time flows like water and you can’t stop it. It seems like a year has passed in the blink of an eye.

A year has passed since the Wen Guo Banquet, and the Qing Kingdom began a new era, changing from the original Qing Kingdom era to the Qingli era. Now is the first year of the Qingli era.

If it was just speculation before, this year Li Chengzong was certain that he had traveled to the film and television world of Joy of Life.

After all, the TV series did not give any specific explanation about Fan Xian's age when he went to Beijing, but the novel clearly mentioned that Fan Xian would go to Beijing at the age of sixteen, which would be next year.

But next year is only the second year of the Qingli period, which does not match the timeline of entering Beijing in the fourth year of the Qingli period.

However, it is worth mentioning that although Fan Xian has not yet entered Beijing, things related to him have spread in Kyoto.

This thing is "Dream of the Red Chamber".

Nowadays, all the young ladies and noble ladies in Kyoto Prefecture like to watch it. Li Chengzong's mother Qin Yu also likes it. Since she learned that the Red Mansion came from the Fan Mansion, she often invites Fan Ruoruo to the palace.

After a while, Qin Yu actually wanted Li Chengzong and Fan Ruoruo to get engaged. If Li Chengzong hadn't gotten the news quickly, Qin Yu would have almost gone to Emperor Qing to ask for permission.

To be honest, Fan Ruoruo is still very beautiful, but Li Chengzong just has no feelings for her.

Maybe this is what it means, different people have different tastes.

On this day, the palace had a martial arts training ground.

Li Chengzong knocked his opponent back with one palm, then sighed with some lack of interest.

After being beaten back, Li Yi steadied himself, flew back to Li Chengzong, and bowed to him: "Master, I am no match for you. Have you achieved the status of a Grandmaster?"

Li Chengzong now has three ninth-rank masters around him, namely Zhao Huai'en, Fan Wujiu and Li Yi. Among them, Li Yi has the highest martial arts skills, having reached the ninth-rank level.

Li Chengzong shook his head: "Ninth rank peak."

At the age of fifteen, he had reached the peak of the ninth rank. It was no exaggeration to say that he was the best among the young generation of the time. However, Li Chengzong did not show any pride or joy. With the system's explanation of the skills and cultivation methods, achieving the peak of the ninth rank was just a natural result.

Apart from the four great masters in the world, it is true that the ninth rank is the world's top combat power. Among the countless warriors, there are only a few who can reach the ninth rank, and there are only a handful who can reach the peak of the ninth rank.

But no matter whether it is the upper ninth grade or the peak ninth grade, they are not in the same league as the grandmaster. For a grandmaster killing a ninth grade expert is no different from killing a chicken. The peak ninth grade is just a bigger chicken.

In the ordinary martial arts world, it is difficult for a top master to contend against a large army. The best he can do is to take the head of an enemy general in the midst of thousands of soldiers. Whether he can escape from the encirclement depends on luck. But in this world, a grandmaster can contend against a large army.

It is no exaggeration to say that a grandmaster can suppress an entire country. Just look at Si Gu Jian of Dongyi City. He relied on his own strength to make Dongyi City surpass the two most powerful countries of the time, Qing and Northern Qi.

If you can’t become a great master, you will always be an ant.

But if you want to reach the level of a grandmaster, it is not possible to succeed by relying solely on martial arts techniques. For example, the martial arts technique given by Ye Qingmei is not only practiced by the three great grandmasters, but in the past few decades, only three people have achieved the level of a grandmaster, and among them, Emperor Qing almost lost his life.

Therefore, if you want to become a great master, you must pay attention to the right time, place and people.

At least that's what Li Chengzong thought.

Fortunately, his way of cultivation is completely different from the way of cultivation in this world, and the system has explained it to him in detail. He doesn't need to pay much attention to these things. He just needs to reach the mysterious realm of the unity of strength and body, body and mind, and mind and spirit as described by the system.

In terms of strength, he has reached the 49 points mentioned by the system, which is the peak strength of the ninth level.

Therefore, Li Chengzong attempted to reach the Grand Master level a few days ago.

But as soon as he started practicing the Heaven and Earth Furnace Sutra, he had a strong feeling.

If you forcefully attack the Grandmaster, you will die!

So, give up!

After thinking for a few days, Li Chengzong discovered the root cause.

The mysterious state that the system talks about requires at least a state of physical and mental relaxation.

But he had pushed himself too hard in the past year, especially after becoming a ninth-rank cultivator. His body and mind were tense.

Therefore, Li Chengzong actually wanted to relax his body and mind by seeking out Li Yi to practice spar with him today.

However, the results were not ideal.

After the fight, he became more and more eager to challenge the Grandmaster. "Let's just leave it at that today, let's go out for a walk together."

Relaxing and going out to play is also a good choice.

Come to think of it, he has not yet had a good tour of Kyoto in fifteen years since he came to this world.

"I'll get ready right away." Li Yi bowed and accepted the order, and was about to prepare the carriage for the trip, but after taking two steps, he turned back and asked, "Master, do you want to call Old Fan as well?"

"What is he doing?"

"Reading. Isn't it the spring imperial examination held every three years recently? He is preparing to take the imperial examination. He locks himself in his room every day to read. I think he is too tense and should relax a little."

"Well, I'll go take a look."

Arriving at Fan Wujiu's yard, Li Chengzong pushed the door open, but Fan Wujiu didn't react at all.

A ninth-rank master didn't even notice the outsider pushing the door and entering, which shows how seriously Fan Wujiu was reading.

Think about my previous life. If I had the same study attitude as Fan Wujiu, it would have been easy for me to get into Tsinghua University or Peking University.

"Fan Wujiu, are you reading?"

After hearing Li Chengzong's words, Fan Wujiu came back to his senses from the book, "Your Highness, why are you here?"

"I heard that you are almost crazy from reading books. I came to take a look. There is no hope. The imperial examination cannot be passed by just reading books. Now that many students are entering the capital, you should go out more and communicate with more students. As the saying goes, reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. Only by walking more, reading more, and communicating more can you enrich your knowledge. If you only know how to study blindly, it will be difficult to achieve anything."

Fan Wujiu was silent for a while before he nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, your highness is right. I will go out and talk to the students."

Having said that, Fan Wujiu stood up and was about to leave.

"Wait, I want to go out for a walk too, let's go together."

About a cup of tea later, the group of four riders slowly left the palace.

It was the time of the spring imperial examination, which was held once every three years. The whole of Kyoto was very lively, with students reading everywhere. The inns and restaurants in Kyoto Prefecture were doing a booming business, and the streets were full of vendors selling food, shouting their wares.

Seeing these students, Li Chengzong actually felt quite sorry. After all, he knew very well that these people would not be able to pass the imperial examination. Just like he had told Fan Wujiu, the imperial examination could not be passed just by reading books.

Cheating in the Spring Imperial Examination has become a tacitly accepted practice in the Kyoto officialdom. Students from poor families have almost no chance of passing the examination. At least for this examination, they can only travel thousands of miles with hope, only to return home disappointed.

To put it bluntly, if Li Chengzong had not passed the note to the chief examiner, even if Fan Wujiu had the talent to be the top scorer in the imperial examination, he would not have been able to pass the imperial examination.

"Your Highness, I will go and talk to the students."

"Well, if you meet a student you think is good, bring him to the main restaurant and I'll take a look."

There was a restaurant that was one of the businesses founded by Li Chengzong in his early years. Today, there are branches of the restaurant in prosperous areas of Kyoto Prefecture, and the main store has developed into a leisure and entertainment venue that integrates eating, drinking, and having fun. In later generations, it would be a high-end private club that requires annual consumption of over one million.

Fan Wujiu nodded, dismounted, handed the reins to Li Yi beside him, and walked towards a few students who were studying and exchanging ideas not far away.

Li Chengzong ignored him and strolled on the street with Li Yi and Li Junxin, leading their horses. The bursts of noise ringing in their ears made them feel the breath of life everywhere.

The most beautiful thing in the world is the smell of fireworks.

Students studying, busy pedestrians, vendors setting up stalls... the streets were crowded with people and cars, a prosperous scene that made Li Chengzong relax both physically and mentally.

Strolling all the way until noon.

When we arrived at the restaurant, the waiters were distributing free food to the students who were coming to Beijing for the imperial examinations near the gate.

There were not many people receiving food, most of them were elderly scholars.

There were quite a few people watching, basically all young scholars, some dressed gorgeously and some dressed simply.

When they looked at the elderly people who received food, their expressions were filled with contempt. Even though some of them couldn't help swallowing their saliva, they still said things like "A scholar should not eat food given out of pity, it is a disgrace to society."

In response, Li Chengzong shook his head and walked towards an old man nearby.

(End of this chapter)