Invasion Myth: Starting with the Schoolteacher

Chapter 268 Offering Incense to the Dragon Lord

The twenty students on the ship were still enthusiastically discussing their experiences in Jianye the day before, and they had a feeling that the outside world was really like this.

"Studying in Qiantang all the time eventually leads to a kind of stagnation. This world is really chaotic."

"Indeed, I pride myself on having seen both the north and south, but who would have thought that I had only built a castle in the air. I still have to thank the academy for its support in enabling me to come out and see the world."

"Alas, how difficult life is for the people. Life is already so dangerous in big cities, the people in small towns and villages must be really suffering."

Some even began writing travelogues, bitterly recounting the miserable state of the world and their own ambitions when they later entered officialdom.

The professors and instructors believe that the students are speaking from the heart, and that they thought the same way when they were young.

Although some of it may seem unrealistic or wishful thinking, having aspirations is always a good thing.

I hope these children can stay true to themselves.
These students really benefited greatly from traveling and studying with someone; their experience has grown abnormally.

Wherever he goes, trouble follows.

From Suzhou onwards, there were a lot of supernatural and ghostly events. When we arrived at Taihu Lake, we even saw water gods and water demons. In Zhenjiang, we also encountered a strange family of alchemists. When we arrived in Jianye, we simply witnessed a grand spectacle.

When I get old, if I talk about those days in front of the younger generation of my family...
Tsk tsk, I'm afraid people won't believe me if I tell them.

The ship continued its journey without stopping until it reached Wuwei County, where it docked for resupply.

They were in such a hurry to leave with the buckets that they couldn't stop once they got here.

This place already belonged to Lujiang Prefecture. Wuwei County was named after the idea that the world should be at peace and that governance should be achieved through non-action.

It sounds very Taoist and sophisticated, but in reality it's just a simple county town.

There are no famous mountains or crowds, so even if Buddhism and Taoism exist, they are mostly unorthodox practices.

The commercial system, relying on the Yangtze River system, was passable. A hundred miles downstream was Jianye, a place where many large ships would not dock.

Xu Xuan, on the contrary, felt that such a small county town could better represent the ecological environment of the residents on both sides of the Yangtze River and had extremely high research value.

I happen to have a lot of energetic young people on hand to work for me, so I should make good use of them.

When Professor Yu is not around, Professor Shi doesn't get involved; he's the one who makes the decisions.

So he sent all the scholars away to see what the small county town looked like, and then, using this small example to illustrate a larger point, they wrote about their experiences and insights into the lives of ordinary people in the Great Jin Dynasty.

For the assigned essay topic, you are required to choose an appropriate angle, determine your theme, and create your own title; do not plagiarize, try to be as practical as possible, poetry is prohibited, and the essay must be no less than 800 words.

The scholars were somewhat troubled. Instructor Xu's requirements were rather tricky and strange. He did not allow them to quote the words of sages to start their essays. In other words, they had to write purely their own opinions, with a creative perspective they had never had before.

As for the evaluation criteria, they should be sufficiently realistic and relevant to people's lives, and hopefully supported by data.

"It takes a bit of difficulty to see who among the twenty can stand out from the crowd."

"It's okay if you can't do it."

Can't do it?
When these young people get together, none of them would say they can't do it; this was an internal competition during their first study abroad trip.

They are all chosen ones, how can they be inferior to others?

Even Ji Rui didn't utter a word; his current skill level is truly capable of writing it.

However, her attire today was somewhat unusual; instead of the flamboyant hairstyle with a jade crown, she wore a headscarf, a rare sight indeed.

This isn't necessarily wrong. Wearing a headscarf is considered elegant, while exposing one's hair is seen as unrestrained. Aesthetically, this is exceptionally open-minded.

However, the way his headscarf was wrapped was similar to the white headscarves worn in North China, which looked completely out of place.

After the main group dispersed, this man sneaked off to the pharmacy, and then went to a small Buddhist or Taoist temple.

He returned dejectedly in the evening, having submitted a report on his perspective on medical care. It examined the healthcare system of a small county from a patient's point of view, assessing everything from consultation fees and medicine prices to the doctors' competence; the report was very practical.

Xu Xuan's eye twitched. "Good, good, as expected of you."

Ji Rui was announced as the winner of this competition.

Qian Zhongyu and his acquaintances suddenly felt a wave of dizziness. This, this, this... After traveling a hundred miles, they were overtaken by Ji Hanqing.
Even Xie Yu found it hard to accept. He could accept being surpassed, but not by Ji Rui.

A trend of involution began to emerge.

That night, Zao suddenly approached Xu Xuan, saying that Ji was suffering from a splitting headache and needed medical treatment.

However, this eccentric friend was in so much pain that he said it was best not to make a fuss about it, and secretly sought help from Master Xu.

Xu suddenly realized that the detailed investigation report he wrote during the day was actually derived from this method, and that he was an experiential learner.

I quickly went to the side room on the second floor and saw this strange man covering his head with both hands, twisting and turning his head back and forth.

The way it flipped and tumbled around was really agile, and its face was flushed with an abnormal redness.

Blood rushes to the head, causing some mental confusion.

He gestured for Zao to pry open Ji Rui's hands. Well, two bulges, about an inch in size, had grown on either side of that guy's head. There were hard objects inside, seemingly about to burst through the skin. He was quite a remarkable person.

"Horns on its head?"

"What have you done now?"

Seeing that the other person was still confused, Xu Xuan delivered a standard slap.

Once I regained my senses, I realized what kind of crazy thing the other person had done.

The last dragon aura of the dynasty that was slain on the day of the Jianye Dragon Slayer fell near the academy's post station, just as Ji was looking up at the sky watching the spectacle.

As we all know, the nerves do not send movement signals to the masticatory muscles, so the masticatory muscles are in a resting state. However, at this time, the masticatory muscles still have resting muscle strength, which is balanced with the weight of the mandible. The mandible is in the mandibular resting position, also called the mandibular postural position. At this time, there will be a small gap between the upper and lower jaws, called the resting jaw gap.

That is, he opened his mouth wide with complete concentration and then swallowed a golden bead.

There was nothing unusual at first, but after leaving Jianye, he started to feel dizzy and lightheaded. By nightfall, he had a splitting headache, as if something was pressing against his scalp and trying to get out, which terrified him.

So, during the day when we were parked in Wuwei, I took the opportunity to visit the clinic.

Why don't you come looking for me?

"Disgraceful."

You knew that too?! I thought you didn't?!
Using my spiritual sense to observe carefully, I found that the aura looked somewhat familiar, as if it were dragon energy entering my body.

However, it is not connected to fortune; it is simply reflected in the physical body.

Luck isn't bloodline. Why would a perfectly good person give up being a dragon? What are the demons doing, going through all those hardships to steal dragon blood and cross the Dragon Gate?

Mr. Xu's spiritual practice has been short, and he truly does not understand the underlying principles.

So he carried this oddball up to the deck. He didn't understand it, but someone else did.

The students who woke up early and Ning Caichen came to help. The two of them carried a table from the cabin and set it up, and then brought some fresh fruits to offer.

"Please grant me an audience with the Lord of the Yangtze River."

The river breeze carried the sound to the water's surface, leaving no ripples.

After a moment, Xu Xuan felt that this was probably not going to work, so he took out three sticks of incense from the jade pot, lit them, and prepared to insert them into the melons and fruits.

Snapped!
(End of this chapter)