CH 174

"Once you're here, you don't have to worry about being assassinated. Not to mention that there's a great Demon King stationed here, if you're attacked here, the East Sea Dragon Clan will make the Demon Clan pay tenfold." Lai Pian said.

"That's even better. Let's first go to the place where they sell Treasures of Literature related to the guqin." Fang Yun said.

"Alright." Yang Yuhuan nodded.

Fang Yun glanced at Fang Danaiu, noticing his pleading look, and then gave a signal towards Xiao Ying.

Fang Yun rolled his eyes at him and said to everyone, "Since the Yinlong Pavilion is very safe, everyone can go their own way. We'll meet at the entrance at midnight. If I don't come back, you guys can go home first."

Fang Danaiu secretly gave Fang Yun a thumbs up, then put on a grateful expression, as if he was willing to go through fire and water for him.

Fang Yun, holding Yang Yuhuan's hand, asked for the direction to the Treasures of Literature related to the guqin and slowly walked there. Apart from Pang, the Presented Scholar, and the vice general, the Imperial Scholar, who followed them, the others either stayed at the entrance or scattered to find things they were interested in.

The items in the Yinlong Pavilion were all very valuable, only the items in the miscellaneous goods area were relatively cheap.

At this time, the Yinlong Pavilion was like a small town, larger than any shopping center Fang Yun had ever seen. Along the way, people were selling maps of the Yinlong Pavilion. Fang Yun bought two, one for Yang Yuhuan and one for himself.

In less than a hundred breaths, he had memorized all the locations in the Yinlong Pavilion, and then handed the map to Nunu.

Fang Yun and Yang Yuhuan walked hand in hand, with Nunu standing on Fang Yun's shoulder, holding the map and looking at it seriously. After a while, it brought the map to Fang Yun and pointed at the dining area, making a whimpering sound.

Fang Yun looked at it and then tricked it by saying, "You're holding it upside down."

Nunu was stunned for a moment, then nodded and turned the map upside down, looking at it carefully and blinking constantly. Finally, it looked at Fang Yun in confusion.

Yang Yuhuan couldn't help but laugh at the silly look of the little fox, her white teeth were particularly eye-catching. Then she realized she had lost her composure, quickly covered her mouth, and found Fang Yun looking at her with a fond expression, which made her blush and lower her head.

The little fox seemed to understand, immediately nudged Fang Yun's head with its own, and whimpered as if to say, you're so bad! Nunu is not going to live anymore!

Fang Yun laughed and gently scratched its neck, and it immediately calmed down, squinting its eyes and enjoying the comfort.

There weren't many people at the entrance, but it became lively once they entered the shopping area.

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Fang Yun occasionally whispered to Yang Yuhuan. Most of the time, he was looking around. The shops here were very neat, one row after another. The road between two rows of shops was about two zhang wide, very spacious, but the further they went, the more people there were.

Fang Yun understood that apart from a few literati, most people on the Holy Origin Mainland had limited forms of entertainment and a monotonous life. Therefore, many people would be very enthusiastic when they encountered such a festival. If it were an era with a variety of entertainment forms, humans would gradually become indifferent to various festivals.

As they were walking, someone squeezed past them. Just as Yang Yuhuan was about to bump into the person, Fang Yun reached out and pulled her into his arms.

Yang Yuhuan looked up at Fang Yun in surprise and embarrassment. Although the customs of the Holy Origin Mainland were relatively open and such intimacy was not considered inappropriate, very few people would actually do so.

Fang Yun looked down into Yang Yuhuan's eyes and gave a slight smile.

Although Yang Yuhuan felt a comforting power in Fang Yun's gaze, her heart was still pounding, afraid of being seen by others. She quickly lowered her head.

Fang Yun didn't care about the gazes of others, it was better than letting Yang Yuhuan be jostled around.

Yang Yuhuan followed Fang Yun with her head down, answering his questions with simple responses like "Mm".

Since today was the Qixi Festival, people on the street didn't find anything unusual about their behavior, but rather envied them. A few couples or spouses even imitated them and leaned against each other.

Fang Yun kept looking at the shops on both sides. He soon discovered why there were so many people here. The sellers were not only from Yuhai City or the entire Qing Nation, but also merchants from the Wu Nation, Qi Nation, and several other nations without coastlines to the west. There were even some businesses owned by prominent families and even Semi-Saint families.

However, most of the sellers were ordinary merchants, because opening a shop here was completely free, they just needed to sell something valuable.

As Fang Yun walked along, he noticed that there were two main types of items. The first type was items used by literati, such as the Four Treasures of the Study, ancient books and paintings, book boxes, tables and chairs, etc. The second type was items from the Demon and Barbarian Clans, various skins, bones, and blood.

The Barbarian Clan was better off, only their skulls and blood were valuable. The Demon Clan was worse off, every part of their body was useful, even if it was made into a craft, it was popular among the human race, because many people's friends and relatives had been harmed by the Demon Clan and used these items to vent their anger.

Fang Yun enjoyed looking at these items because they allowed him to understand this world most directly.

Before long, Fang Yun arrived at the area for Treasures of Literature. This was not a common stall, but a series of houses, and even some small squares, where many people were either selling items or waiting for people to come and trade.

There were very few people here, because many shops or entrances had a transparent water door set up, and only those with talent could bring people through.

Fang Yun's arm left Yang Yuhuan's waist, and he held her hand as they slowly looked around. They soon arrived at an open-air circular square.

There were many wooden racks around the square, and on the racks were various Treasures of Literature related to the guqin, a total of hundreds of racks. These guqins were both new and old, and some were even incomplete, but each guqin had a unique attraction. Even those who didn't understand the guqin would feel their extraordinariness.

Among them, a few guqins emitted extremely clear auras. Not to mention Fang Yun, even Yang Yuhuan, an ordinary person, could sense them.

Especially the long blood-colored guqin in the middle, the body of the guqin was extremely long. A typical guqin is three feet six inches five, subtly corresponding to the number 365, but this guqin was more than three inches longer than the typical guqin, almost four feet.Fang Yun immediately thought of a famous guqin from Jing Kingdom called "Blood Mosquito". The name might not sound grand, but it was a renowned killing guqin. Not only did its sound resemble that of a mosquito, but it also exterminated demons and barbarians as if they were mere mosquitoes. This was a Treasures of Literature of a Great Scholar, and no one knew who ended up possessing it.

Fang Yun could feel a strong killing intent from it. This guqin must have slaughtered at least tens of thousands of Demon Barbarians to possess such a terrifying killing intent.

Although the other guqins had their own merits, none of them were as domineering as this one.

Fang Yun couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement in his heart. The reason he chose to study painting and guqin was precisely because they were extremely compatible with poetry!

Once poetry and painting were combined, their power would inevitably increase greatly. Many guqin pieces were derived from poetry and songs, or corresponded to them. For example, "Phoenix Seeking its Mate" was a product of both poetry and guqin music.

Not only was this the case in the Holy Origin Mainland, but also in the Tang Dynasty on Earth. The guqin piece "Three Variations on the Yang Pass" was derived from Wang Wei's famous poem, and pieces like "Moon Over the Mountain Pass" and "Beating Clothes" were derived from Li Bai's ancient poems. There were countless examples like these.

Fang Yun had long known that the guqin and Confucianism were deeply connected. Since the Song Dynasty, the most popular shape for a guqin was the "Zhongni Style". Confucius of the Holy Origin Mainland also designed the shape of the guqin, which was also the "Zhongni Style".

Sage Confucius himself was a guqin master, as clearly recorded in the "Historical Records". When Sage Confucius entered the Demon Realm, he carried with him the first killing guqin "Hao Zhong". With one piece, hundreds of thousands of miles of mountains and rivers were destroyed.

Fang Yun initially wanted to learn painting before learning the guqin, but upon discovering that Yang Yuhuan had a talent for the guqin, and could assist guqin masters with her skills, he decided to master the guqin as soon as possible.

In the center of the small square, there were about two hundred people standing or sitting. Because the people in the outer circle were standing and those in the inner circle were sitting, Fang Yun couldn't see exactly how many people were inside. But it seemed that there were about thirty or so people sitting, and the rest, over a hundred people, were standing.

Most of those standing were young, but there were also some older people, and even a man dressed in the attire of an Imperial Scholar was standing respectfully.

Fang Yun signaled Yang Yuhuan and Nu Nu to keep quiet, and slowly walked over to stand behind those who were standing, looking inside.

The people sitting inside were arranged in an arc. Except for two or three who were in their thirties, the rest were at least in their forties or fifties. Some were so old that they could only squint, lacking even the strength to open their eyes wide.

Several old men dressed as Accomplished Scholars were sitting calmly, not feeling any problem sitting in front of so many Imperial Scholars or Presented Scholars.

Fang Yun looked at those sitting, and recognized seven or eight familiar faces. Some he had seen at the Dragon Boat Festival celebration banquet, some he had just met at the Qixi Poetry Meeting, and one familiar face made Fang Yun smile slightly, while also feeling a bit shocked inside.

The man sitting in the middle, who didn't even have the strength to open his eyes wide, was the old man who had helped Fang Yun disguise himself with painting.

Fang Yun had originally guessed that this old man's painting skills could reach the third realm. Now it seemed that his guqin skills were also at least in the third realm, otherwise he wouldn't be able to sit there. This reminded Fang Yun of a legendary figure from Jing Kingdom.

The old man slightly lifted his eyelids to look at Fang Yun, then drooped them again, pretending not to recognize him.

Fang Yun also kept his face as usual.

A guqin master was explaining how to determine the age and quality of a guqin through its sound. His explanation was far more detailed than what Fang Yun had read in books, and he also provided a lot of examples. Fang Yun immediately listened attentively.

Next, the guqin masters present took turns explaining how to identify a guqin, mainly its age and layers.

Guqins were slightly different from other Treasures of Literature.

The power of all Treasures of Literature would dissipate due to various factors. Once their time was up, they would turn into ordinary items. If talent was infused into them again, they would be no different from new items infused with talent.

However, Treasures of Literature guqins were different. Each time the power of a Treasures of Literature guqin dissipated and talent was infused into it again, the power of the guqin would increase, and it would become stronger and stronger. The number of times talent was infused into it determined the number of layers of the guqin. However, most Treasures of Literature guqins could only withstand being infused three times, any more would cause the guqin to collapse.

Once the number of infusions exceeded three, reaching four or higher, the power of the guqin would greatly increase.

For the same Presented Scholar Treasures of Literature guqin, if a person consumed the same amount of talent to play The War Poetry, a two-layer guqin would only have 10% more power than a one-layer guqin, but a four-layer guqin would have twice the power of a one-layer guqin!

If it weren't for the fact that guqins with four or more layers were extremely rare, the status of the guqin would not be much inferior to that of poetry.

The requirement to play The War Poetry with a Treasures of Literature guqin was already very strict, and only The War Poetry played with a four-layer guqin could compete with The War Poetry. This greatly raised the threshold of the guqin.

However, every guqin master who had cultivated to a high level and possessed a famous guqin was a well-known figure in the ten nations. (To be continued.)