Shushan: Extinction

Chapter 21 Talent: Boya breaks his string?
Kang Dao:

"There's a popular saying on Earth that the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish. If you want to get a stronger talent, you'll have to pay a higher price."

"In fact, after I merged with the mobile phone on Earth, I thought there was a good game in it, so I borrowed its content and classified all the talents."

"They are gray, white, green, blue, purple, orange and red. The talents at the end are rarer and more powerful. For example, Qi Jinchan's chosen talent is red."

"If you spend five points of Zhenlong, there is a 70% chance of drawing a gray talent, a 20% chance of drawing a white talent, and of course, there is a 10% chance of drawing nothing."

"If you spend ten points of Zhenlong, you will have a 40% chance of drawing a gray talent, a 30% chance of drawing a white talent, a 20% chance of drawing a green talent, and a 10% chance of failing."

"You spend 20 Zhenlong points, and the probability of drawing a gray talent is 20%, the probability of drawing a white talent is 30%, the probability of drawing a green talent is 20%, the probability of drawing a blue talent is 10%, and the % chance of failing."

"."

Gong Tianwu frowned and calculated, then he found that this rule was easy to understand. By investing five more points of Zhenlong each time he drew, he could unlock an additional talent of higher quality, but the 10% chance of failure always existed.

Kang added:

"Oh, right, for now, except for a few special talents, when your body dies, your talent will also disappear."

Gong Tianwu immediately said with regret:
"Oh my god! What if I get lucky and draw a very powerful talent? I thought I could have fun all the time?"

Kang Dao:

"If you want more and stronger privileges, then work hard to complete the tasks I assign to you. As long as I am strong enough, everything will be easy."

Gong Tianwu shrugged and said:
"Okay, what you told me is really interesting. I'll draw my talent first."

As soon as Gong Tianwu finished speaking, the number on his Zhenlong changed from 6 o'clock to 1 o'clock, and then a square box appeared in front of him. The font inside began to jump and change continuously, and the speed of the jump and change gradually slowed down from extremely fast.

At the beginning, Gong Tianwu could only see gray, white, and the occasional quick flashes of black.

Obviously, black represents the 10% chance of a bye.

The speed of the beating began to slow down rapidly. Gong Tianwu also began to become a little nervous, and his palms began to sweat:
"What the hell is this white talent: Geomancer - you have extraordinary understanding of Feng Shui? Fortunately, I skipped it."

"Ah? Grey-talented left-handed person, you will have a slight advantage over ordinary people when fighting and writing with your left hand. No no no!"

"Oh my god! Extraordinary physical strength? Your strength is naturally stronger than that of ordinary people. Ahhh, this is good. Don't jump, don't jump. Damn it!"

"."

The last thing that froze in front of Gong Tianwu was a white talent: Boya Breaks His Strings.

Looking at the introduction of this talent, Gong Tianwu almost cried out loud. White talent is white talent, but what use is this thing to me?

It turns out that the introduction to this talent is: You inherited the musical talent of Yu Boya when he broke his zither, and you surpass most ordinary people in this respect.

If it were the previous Gong Tianwu, he would definitely be very frustrated after drawing this talent, but now he has matured a lot. He suddenly thought of his previous experience in hunting ice corpses, which he also disdained and thought was useless.

However, it was that experience that helped me a lot during my last resurrection!
Thinking of this, Gong Tianwu couldn't help but mutter:

"Yes, there are only useless people, but no useless talents. Let's study it first."

***
Two days later,

The feeling of weakness in Gong Tianwu's body has almost disappeared. It seems that the extra cause and effect points he paid when taking over another body have taken effect.

Of course, daily medications and adequate nutritious meals should not be neglected.

Since he woke up, the old man in his family only came to see him once with a gloomy face, and then left angrily. After all, the scandal this time was too big.

Because of this, Old Man Xie was often ridiculed outside. Even the Wu family, who had been engaged, took the initiative to propose to cancel the engagement, which made Old Man Xie lose face.

Unfortunately, this damned son was still weak, and Father Xie wanted to drag him to the ancestral temple and beat him up to vent his anger, but in the end he couldn't bear to do so.

After all, even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. What if he kills him? Besides, this son is a scholar, so at least he has crossed the class barrier, right?
So Father Xie could only choose to turn a blind eye and not be bothered, and he angrily took his people on a long business trip.

As soon as Old Man Xie left, the next person to come was the county magistrate. His authority was similar to that of the police chief on Earth, and he was responsible for public security.

As the saying goes, good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels a thousand miles. What happened to Xie family's Xiaowu also involved keywords such as female fairy, wind on horseback, etc., which carry strong popularity. Therefore, it has spread like wildfire in the county. If the registrar does not want to be rated as mediocre in the year-end performance evaluation, he will definitely come to find out the truth.

But Gong Tianwu couldn't provide much information. He only remembered that the little spider spirit seemed to be called Xiaoqi? Others thought he was ashamed to mention such a shameful thing, and they thought it was understandable.

The only person who can visit Gong Tianwu every day is his stepmother, Mrs. Hu.

Although Mrs. Hu is a second wife, she is very gentle and generous to others and has a high emotional intelligence. The meals she brings every day are all cooked by her own cooking and can be said to be quite nutritious.

At the same time, although Mrs. Hu didn't say much, every word she said was to comfort him and was very considerate. Gong Tianwu also asked her to find the bamboo flute, music scores and other things he wanted.

I would like to mention here that Xie Zhengwu, whose body was possessed, was a scholar and had to learn the six arts of a gentleman, one of which was "music", so Gong Tianwu, who inherited his memory, had no problem looking at music scores and the like.

After Mrs. Hu left, Gong Tianwu picked up the bamboo flute next to him. A wonderful feeling surged from deep within his body, as if he had met an old friend he hadn't seen for many years. Gong Tianwu couldn't help but put the flute to his lips and started playing.

Gradually, as the music spread, almost everyone in the town was attracted to it, their eyes full of fascination - of course, that was impossible! ! It only existed in Gong Tianwu's imagination.

In fact, it is not that easy to transform talent into real strength. It requires not only years of accumulation, but also hard training day and night.

And what if this talent is successfully transformed?
Even if you have reached the level of Yu Boya, there will still be the lament that your music is too high-brow and few people can appreciate it. And the reason why Yu Boya "stopped playing the music" is because Lao Zhong, the only person who could understand his music, died.

There is no one to applaud, so what is the point of playing?
So instead of learning from Youniao and Ma Hu, I just smashed my guitar and quit the circle!

Imagine if Lao Yu's music was popular among tens of thousands of people, and a ticket to the worst stand was sold for more than 3,000 yuan by scalpers, would he stop playing the piano after hearing the news of Lao Zhong's death? Of course not.

After discovering this, Gong Tianwu sighed and could only turn his grief and anger into appetite by eating two more bowls of rice.

After Gong Tianwu had eaten his fill, a reminder suddenly popped up in front of him:

"Since your physical condition has now recovered to a healthy state, the chain main task is officially started: Words of Speech."

"Introduction: Get the original manuscript of the work "Ci Shuo" written by the great scholar Li Jixian with his life's hard work, and become its owner."

"Explanation: This book has its own spirituality. You must obtain its own permission. It is meaningless to use other means to obtain it."

“Time limit: before Grain in Ear.”

"Warning: The main mission is very important and cannot be missed. Failure will bring serious consequences, and half of the remaining soul will be deducted."

As the prompt in front of him gradually disappeared, Gong Tianwu's face suddenly became solemn. Now it was less than six months away from Grain in Ear, and time was very tight.

He was not idle during the past two days of recuperation and conducted some basic investigations on this place, which were Nanyi State, Changhe County, and Jingdong County.

The sect that governs this place is Baimanshan.

Yes, it is the famous evil sect that can produce golden silkworm Gu that can kill hundreds of poisons. Its founder is Baimanshan, the Green Robe Patriarch.

He had also asked around privately, but no one knew where Lelang Country was. Fortunately, the original owner was a scholar and his family was not short of money. Finally, he found relevant records in a book:

There is a country called Lelang in the far north, which is millions of miles away from here. It is near the Sky Island, and the magnetic divine light (Aurora) can be seen there.

After seeing this record, Gong Tianwu realized that this time he took over another body and came directly to the south.

Under normal circumstances, the mortals under the rule of an evil sect like Baimanshan would certainly be severely exploited, living in dire straits and suffering.

But the situation Gong Tianwu saw was quite different. The civilians here at least had enough food to eat and clothes to wear. There were also very poor people, but they could survive by doing odd jobs. No one starved to death in the surrounding villages.

This situation is really much better than that in Shimen Village, Maoshan County. Every year, several people freeze to death or starve to death. As for not having enough food, it is a common phenomenon. It is a truly bitter and cold place.

Of course, the situation in Nanyi Country is better, which is also closely related to the warm and humid climate here. After carefully reading the main task submitted by Kang, Gong Tianwu decided to go out and get some information.

Fortunately, the Xidu Town where he was at this time was only eleven miles away from the county seat. The Fuba River was next to the town, and there was also a large post station in the town. Therefore, Xidu Town could barely be considered a key point of water and land transportation, a thoroughfare, and it was quite prosperous. It was also quite easy to find out any information.

After just a quick rummage around in the thatched cottage, Gong Tianwu found some silver treasures. He couldn't help but feel that he was quite lucky this time. Being able to be resurrected into such a family saved him a lot of time in struggling.

However, what Gong Tianwu did not expect was that a dozen steps after he walked out of the gate, a smiling old man followed him. He looked to be in his sixties and his legs and feet were still very convenient. He was the village chief who was usually responsible for cleaning.

This village chief was originally born into the Black Miao family. He was rescued by the Xie family when they were doing business thirty years ago. He then traveled around with the Xie family. Later, his business became better, so he settled down in Xidu Town, where there are many Han people, got married and had children. At this time, he has been completely assimilated into the Han culture, and his speech, behavior and dress are no different from those of ordinary Han people.

At this time, the village chief followed Gong Tianwu with a smile. After the two chatted for a few words, Gong Tianwu immediately understood that this old servant should be the one in the family who was specially assigned to look after him and prevent him from getting involved with women or else he would die.

It was noon at this time, and it was the big market day in Xidu Town. People from all over the town flocked there. The only street in the town was quite prosperous, and the shops on both sides and the street were crowded with people.

Not only that, there are street stalls everywhere, some selling steaming oil tea, some selling crispy and fragrant fried insects, and some selling fragrant fried rice cakes.

Gong Tianwu prefers glutinous rice balls, which are made of sticky white rice wrapped with diced bacon, fermented black beans, diced lotus root, dried radish, and rice crust, and then wrapped with vegetable leaves. The satisfaction you feel when you take a bite of them is irreplaceable, and this thing is delicious and can satisfy your hunger. Eating one for breakfast can keep you feeling full until noon.

Suddenly, Gong Tianwu heard someone shouting:

"Selling monster meat, selling monster meat!"

Hearing this voice, Gong Tianwu immediately became very interested.

To be honest, he had killed several monsters like the Ice Sea Evil Corpse, and he had never seen such a thing as a dead monster sold on the street. But seeing that the people around him were very calm, he knew that this should be a common thing.

So Gong Tianwu squeezed over to take a look, but was immediately disappointed. It turned out that the monster that the man was selling was actually a wild dog with yellow skin and white belly. Only after being pointed out could he realize that the dog's paws looked 50% similar to human hands.

This kind of monster is completely different from the image of monster in Gong Tianwu's mind!
Shouldn't a monster be a snow-white fur ball called Hakimi? At most, add a few tails!
He continued walking forward and found that the most prosperous part of the market was in front of him. There were more monster meat-like things being sold here, but most of them were half-demons that had just begun to transform. The only decent one was a frog monster as big as a millstone, with its white belly turned up and its tongue hanging out, emitting a foul odor. It looked like a complete buyer's market.

Soon, Gong Tianwu became visually fatigued and left. He found that only about half of the people on the street were Han people, and the rest were wearing colorful clothes. They were mountain people from nearby villages, including Miao, Bai, Shanyue and so on.

Among them, the Miao people are divided into Black Miao and White Miao. The Black Miao have little contact with the outside world, have a bad temper and are prone to quarrels, act recklessly and boldly, and also know witchcraft. The White Miao, also known as the Cooked Miao, has a lot of contact with the outside world and has been semi-Sinicized.

To be honest, Gong Tianwu still looked pretty good at this time. He was a handsome young man, fair-skinned, elegant and refined. He wore a green robe and a square scarf worn by scholars on his head. He looked like a handsome scholar.

Such scholars may be common in Qinhuai River, Suzhou and Hangzhou areas, but they are definitely rare in southern Xinjiang, so the rate of young girls, young women, sisters-in-law and the like turning their heads to look at them on the street is very high.

Moreover, ethnic minorities have a tough folk custom, girls are hot and enthusiastic, and walking and getting married is common. Gong Tianwu walked about 100 meters on the street and then harvested seven wallets (with this thing, you can enter Amei's stilt house at night without getting beaten), and there are more than three digits of charming eyes.

What's even more exaggerated is that she was pulled into the stall by the tofu beauty Xu Guafu, and the hot queen picked peaches with lightning speed, and then said with a smile:

"Oh my god! Those sluts who said that Mr. Xie had a donkey-like penis turned out to be true!!"

Gong Tianwu suddenly felt a chill:

"Oh my god, the roles have been reversed. How the hell did I become the target of teasing?"

"Forget it, forget it. I'm a scholar now, so I'd better stop saying this catchphrase."

However, when Widow Xu turned around, she saw the village chief who was following her. The old man was very kind in front of Gong Tianwu and smiled when he spoke, but when he stared at Widow Xu, his face was expressionless and his eyes were gloomy.

Widow Xu shuddered immediately. She had heard some rumors about the old village chief. Just thinking about it made her spine cold. So she quickly let go of Gong Tianwu and said with a smile:
"Scholar, you have something to do, go and do it first, go and do it first"

But he still seemed to be unsatisfied and sniffed his fingers
Taking all of this in his heart, Gong Tianwu thought to himself that the Xie family was no ordinary family. A seemingly kind old servant had such a deterrent power in the local area, which showed the influence of the Xie family.

But think about it carefully, Xidu Town is a strategic point of both land and water transport, with good and bad people mixed together, people coming and going, and Han and barbarians living together. The Xie family has been the local tyrant for more than eighty years in such a place for three generations. If it were a piece of fat meat, it would have been eaten up long ago. How can it be possible without some deterrent effect?
This is indeed the case. The Xie family has a house and a shop in Xidu Town, but their real roots are in Xiejiazhuang, seven or eight miles outside Xidu Town.

This manor was built on a strategic location. Although it is called a manor, it is actually like a stronghold that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. There are hundreds of farmhands who are skilled in spears and sticks. It has been passed down for nearly a hundred years and has never been breached in this chaotic world!
Soon, Gong Tianwu arrived at the Jinghuopu next to the pier.

The business scope here is very diverse, ranging from gold and silver ingots burned for the dead, paper horses and paper figures, to paper and tung oil, etc. They also sell some Buddhist scriptures, Taoist scriptures, calendars and the like.

After entering the Jinghuo Shop, the faint scent of tung oil hits your nose. This stuff has a wide range of uses. In addition to being used as paint, it can also be used to make oilcloth and oil paper. It also plays a huge role in the military. And it is only produced in the south, so the profit from selling it is very high.

The owner of the paper and fire shop was also surnamed Xie, and was Gong Tianwu's relative in this life. When he saw him come in, he immediately greeted him warmly:

"The scholar is here?"

There was no sign of anything unusual in his expression, as if he was completely unaware of the scandal of "Ma Shang Feng".

Gong Tianwu shouted:
"Sixth Uncle, I came to ask you something. Do you know a great scholar named Li Jixian?"

Boss Xie thought about it, then suddenly slapped his thigh and said:

"I see. Are you talking about Li Hanlin from Lijiaba in the next county?"

Gong Tianwu said:

"Yes! That's him."

Then the two sides started a lively conversation.

After the two sides chatted for a cup of tea, Gong Tianwu went to the post station here again, and easily struck up a conversation with another cousin of the same family. Then, after stuffing a few copper coins into the guy's pocket, he successfully got the Jinshenlu.

What is the Jinshenlu used for? It records the list of officials in the entire Nanyi Kingdom.

It also describes his general physical characteristics in detail, such as his fair face and no beard, and his height of seven feet, and records his corresponding official position.

The post station provided free food and lodging to passing officials, so having a Jinshenlu would allow them to follow the map and avoid impersonation.

***
Half an hour later,

Gong Tianwu was thoughtful. Through interviews and Jinshenlu, he had already mastered the basic situation of the great scholar Li Jixian. The specific order of mastery was very clear as follows:

Old man
A talented old man.

A talented, stubborn old man.

A stubborn old man with talent and no fear of death,

A stubborn old man who is talented, fearless and dares to offend the powerful.

The stubborn old man is dead
After pondering for a while, Gong Tianwu made a decision to go to Lijiaba in the neighboring Weiting County.

That is Li Jixian's hometown. According to the records of Jinshenlu, after Li Jixian passed away, his eldest son Li Guihan, who was a Gongcao of the Ministry of Revenue, immediately went into mourning and then returned to his hometown to guard the body.

Not only that, his work "Ci Shuo" is also very famous and highly praised by scholars. It is even said to be the best literary work in the Southern Capital for three hundred years! The handwritten manuscript of "Ci Shuo" is even said to have reached the level of spiritual enlightenment.

Since the old man is already dead, if Gong Tianwu wants to get his hands on his posthumous work "Ci Shuo", he can only start from his descendants and wait and see the situation.

It was not easy to travel far away at that time, especially leaving the county to go to other counties, and a travel permit was indispensable.

Moreover, Gong Tianwu is still a scholar after all. Scholars have the privilege of carrying swords while traveling for study, so it is not so troublesome to open the way for him. If it were an ordinary commoner, it would really be a big loss.

At this time, Father Xie was not at home, and Gong Tianwu brought up the excuse of "the scholar is traveling to study and visit a teacher". Mrs. Hu was also a little embarrassed, but Gong Tianwu kept persuading her, and finally nodded and agreed, but also raised two requirements:
First, stay away from women.

Second, the world has been in a state of unrest lately, so bringing a few more people along would help provide some support.

Gong Tianwu readily agreed to this, after all, what Mrs. Hu said made sense.

When he was lying in bed that night, the moonlight fell into the water, illuminating the earth. Gong Tianwu's heart moved, and he saw a message from Kang:
"You must remember this formula."

Then a short piece of mental sutra began to appear on Gong Tianwu’s retina, and its name was: Zhenyu.

The full text is only about a hundred words:
"The nature of inaction is naturally perfect, and the spirit of formlessness is naturally mysterious. The mysteriousness is infinite in change, unpredictable in appearance and concealment, and the perfection of nature is wisdom that illuminates the ten directions, and the spiritual connection is unbreakable."

Gong Tianwu's eyes were filled with tears and he was extremely excited:
"Oh my god, are you finally realizing that I'm a weakling and are going to give me some sweet treats?
(End of this chapter)