Poor Taoist Qiu Chuji

Chapter 200: Excellence will be criticized, mediocrity will be forgotten

In front of the cabin, Dugu Qiubai watched Guo Jing perform the "Yue Girl Sword Technique" but did not offer any instructions immediately.

Guo Jing lowered his head in shame. With his current martial arts experience, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed when he reflected on the sword technique he just used.

People will not become all-rounders just because they have stronger talents and experience in one area, but if they stand on a high level and look at other aspects, they will have a basic ability to identify.

He doesn't know what is best, but he can definitely feel what is bad.

To be precise, Guo Jing's current swordsmanship is too ambitious but lacks the skills to master it.

Dugu Qiubai stood up from the steps in front of the wooden house, and then walked towards Guo Jing step by step. Each of his steps sank deeply into the mud. When he walked in front of Guo Jing, the line of footprints looked extremely complicated.

"Follow and practice, swing the sword at least a thousand times every day." Dugu Qiubai did not explain the principle to Guo Jing, but just gave this order.

Guo Jing had no doubts and immediately followed the order and started practicing hard.

For quite a long time afterwards, the father and son continued to do this. Guo Jing followed the footsteps, just like learning to walk in Handan, while wielding the wooden sword given to him by Dugu Qiubai. Some of the Yue Girl Swordsmanship moves that were off the ground were skipped and simplified during the practice. Dugu Qiubai just continued to practice his internal strength, and his condition seemed to be getting better day by day.

Dugu Qiubai never spoke much, and Guo Jing seldom took the initiative to talk. The valley always seemed too quiet, with only the cries of the strange eagles bringing some noise from time to time.

These past few days, the lives of the father and son were basically taken care of by this eagle. The game and fruits they ate, as well as the Bosuqu snakes they used as tonic, were all collected by the eagle every day.

And it enjoys doing it very much and never gets tired of it.

······
Wanyan Honglie brought a group of people and returned to Jiaxing City. After the last "heart-to-heart talk" between father and son, Wanyan Honglie seemed to have given up on getting answers from Wanyan Kang. He would leave mysteriously with a group of his men every day, and then return to his temporary residence late at night, exhausted.

Wanyan Kang would occasionally wait for Wanyan Honglie to come back, and the father and son would greet each other when they met.

It was visibly that Wanyan Honglie was becoming more and more tired, and his overall mental state was getting worse and worse.

In just a few days, he looked like he had aged ten years and seemed to be under a lot of pressure.

Wanyan Kang's keen insight allowed him to see directly into people's hearts, so he could also feel that beneath Wanyan Honglie's seemingly calm face, suppressed anger and resentment were accumulating.

Those seemingly sincere greetings and concerns are becoming more and more formal.

The warmth of the past began to become blurred in Wanyan Kang's memory, making it difficult for him to tell whether it was all false or whether there had really been a good time when the father and son were close.

Until this day, Wanyan Honglie could no longer hold back and said to Wanyan Kang: "Regarding the Liancheng treasure... do you really have no other clues?"

He looked at Wanyan Kang eagerly, as if he had thrown away all his dignity and pride as the sixth prince of the Jin Dynasty, and even the majesty that his father needed to maintain was swept away.

Wanyan Honglie had already shown Ouyang Feng the "Wedding Dress Magic Skill" that Wanyan Kang had given him.

Ouyang Feng was overjoyed, but he also confirmed personally that this was indeed just an extremely advanced internal martial arts technique, not a secret formula for a priceless treasure.

Wanyan Kang was silent for a few breaths, then said with some difficulty: "I can go ask Guo Jing. If it is in his hands, I will ask him for it...if that is your wish."

Wanyan Kang once said that he would do three things for Wanyan Honglie that would go against his own conscience.

Wanyan Honglie, who was exhausted and excited, did not notice the change in Wanyan Kang's tone or context at all. Or even if he did notice it, he would not care too much.

He has already lost his love, so he will never allow himself to lose his power.

"Good! Good! Kang'er! You are indeed a good son of your father!" Wanyan Honglie said excitedly while patting Wanyan Kang's shoulder.

Only Wanyan Kang knew that the excitement of the "father" in front of him was genuine, but there was little gratitude in his heart. Instead, he felt more resentment. He was complaining... If there was a way, why didn't he tell him before?

Then Wanyan Honglie's eyes flickered: "Do you have a way to contact Guo Jing?"

Wanyan Kang shook his head: "I only know that after a while, he will go out to Peach Blossom Island."

Wanyan Honglie asked: "Do you know where he will board the ship and go out to sea?"

Wanyan Kang shook his head again.

The East China Sea coastline is very long, and if you want to find a small fishing boat to go out to sea, you don’t actually need to go to any large dock. This means that Guo Jing can take a boat out to sea in many locations.

With the number of people Wanyan Honglie currently has in Song territory, he simply cannot deploy more people along the coast.

As for deploying the officers and soldiers of the Song Dynasty for his own use as before, that was of course impossible.

When it comes to some small matters, these two-faced Song officials will of course rush to do the work and curry favor with the emperor. But when it comes to a priceless treasure, except for a few with really bad brains, even the most greedy and timid Song officials will only pretend to obey and secretly disobey. Asking these people for help will only cause trouble.

"Then let's find a boat to Peach Blossom Island and block him there." Wanyan Honglie made the decision immediately.

"The Yellow Island Master of Peach Blossom Island is very powerful, and he is also Guo Jing's father-in-law." Wanyan Kang reminded him for some reason. "It doesn't matter! My father has also invited a master, and what's more... Hehe!" Wanyan Honglie thought of something and smiled and shook his head.

But I secretly thought to myself that it was really a coincidence.

It just so happened that Ouyang Feng had recently asked for leave from him, saying that he was going to take his nephew to Peach Blossom Island and propose to the owner of Peach Blossom Island, Huang Yaoshi, on behalf of his nephew, asking to marry the owner's daughter.

Now they can blend into the marriage proposal team.

But...why did Wanyan Honglie plan to delay Ouyang Feng first in order to close Guo Jing's schedule?

Another thing is, during this period of time, find a way to call some of the Jin Kingdom's navy in Dengzhou over.

The Liancheng treasure is of great importance, and Wanyan Honglie does not want any accidents.

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The place where Guo Jing practiced sword has been changed from the flat area in the valley to the pool under the waterfall.

Apart from replacing the wooden sword with a heavy sword, Dugu Qiubai did not teach Guo Jing any other sword techniques, but only let him continue to practice the Yuenu sword technique.

But... because the sword used was changed to a heavy sword, some of the more complicated sword techniques in the Yue girl swordsmanship became difficult to perform.

Guo Jing had to cut down on a few more moves.

The Yue Girl Sword Technique originally had 49 moves, but after being simplified twice, it was reduced to only 18 moves. Guo Jing felt awkward when he performed it.

After practicing sword skills under the waterfall for a month, Dugu Qiubai finally began to teach Guo Jing sword skills personally.

His teaching method is very simple, just one word...beat!
In Guo Jing's eyes, Dugu Qiubai, holding a small wooden stick, is an insurmountable mountain.

No matter how he swung his sword, Dugu Qiubai could always easily find a flaw and hit the numb point on his wrist, forcing him to drop the sword.

During the "beating" of Dugu Qiubai, Guo Jing summed up his experience and further reduced the moves of Yuenu Sword Technique, simplifying the eighteen moves into five.

The reason for such a quick summary is that only when using these five moves can Guo Jing avoid Dugu Qiubai's "meeting kill". When the five moves are combined, he can survive five moves at most from Dugu Qiubai, and at least two or three moves, and he will never be defeated at the first move.

At this point, Guo Jing's swordsmanship seemed to have reached a bottleneck. The foundation he had accumulated over the past decade of learning swordsmanship from Han Xiaoying had been completely consumed.

Under the bright moonlight, Dugu Qiubai easily knocked the heavy sword out of Guo Jing's hand with a wooden stick. The heavy sword hit the tree trunk not far away, leaving a deep gap in the poor big tree.

"Do you understand?" Dugu Qiubai asked without thinking.

Guo Jing thought for a moment and asked, "Adoptive father, are you trying to say that the great principles are simple, and so are swordsmanship. I don't need to use overly complicated moves. As long as I practice the simplest ones to perfection, I will be able to understand the principles of swordsmanship?"

Dugu Qiubai shook his head: "What your father means is that your swordsmanship is shit. Only these five moves are barely passable."

Even a kind and honest man like Guo Jing felt embarrassed by Dugu Qiubai's blunt words.

"The Yue Girl Swordsmanship was once a very powerful swordsmanship. According to legend, during the Warring States Period, the Yue Girl Ah Qing broke through 3,000 armors with one sword. It's a pity that we were unable to fight against such a magical sword."

Dugu Qiubai looked up at the moon, as if he could glimpse the ancients through the moonlight.

Hearing this, Guo Jing grabbed his forehead and said, "In that case, it is indeed us descendants who are too incompetent. We have wasted such a magic sword and disgraced it."

Dugu Qiubai waved his hand, shook his head and said: "Swordsmanship is like military tactics. Let me ask you, is there any military tactic that can always win in this world?"

Guo Jing shook his head: "I think there shouldn't be any. If there was, the world wouldn't be in such chaos."

"That's exactly why the Yue Girl Sword is very powerful. But the more powerful it is, the more people will study it. Its moves and sword principles will be cracked, and those who study it will also find ways to innovate and add more things to the original foundation in order to maintain its glory."

"From generation to generation, year after year, it has been passed down like this. The sword principles have been lost, the sword spirit has dissipated, and even the most powerful sword skills have become a pebble with its edges and corners polished away."

Guo Jing began to truly understand what Dugu Qiubai meant.

The Sword of Yuenu should have been very, very good, but it fell into a vicious circle of 'finding leaks and filling them'. When it was cracked by someone, it tried to fill them up. Then it was cracked again, and it was filled up again. By the time it seemed that there were no obvious flaws left, it was actually extremely mediocre and no longer had any of its original brilliance.

It’s like a person who wants to be perfect amid rumors and to satisfy as much as possible the expectations of every person who speaks out. However, people cannot be gods and cannot be omniscient and omnipotent, so changes over and over again are actually moving towards mediocrity.

When someone is so mediocre that no one blames him, it is not because he is really perfect, but because no one cares about him.

Only the excellent will be criticized, and the mediocre will be forgotten.

Dugu Qiubai's training of Guo Jing was not to make him more rounded, but to sharpen his swordsmanship again.

(End of this chapter)