Chapter 37 Novelist

In the Sifang Water Well courtyard, Hu Wenlang listened to Zhou Tiege's mysterious battle with the monk while writing down a few key points on paper.

After writing half a page, Hu Wenlang put down his pen, picked up a few peanuts and chewed them, then asked, "There is still more than a month left. What are you going to do?"

Zhou Tiege put his palm on the jade pendant at his waist and clenched it, saying, "I've been waiting for the Buddha nature to dissipate these few days."

Hu Wenlang's eyes widened. With his knowledge and what he had heard, he could probably guess the solution of the Third Rank Daoist Orthodoxy, so he asked in surprise, "Aren't you afraid of losing the initiative? As a noble family, the Yuchi family will not sit idly by."

Zhou Tiege let go of the jade pendant and said with a smile, "You can't always ask others for help. What's the point of practicing martial arts if you do that?"

Zhou Tiege spoke the last sentence with particular certainty.

Hu Wenlang rolled his eyes, "So you thought of me?"

Zhou Tiege nodded and said, "The monk has scheduled a fight in front of Tianmen Palace in about a month, but we haven't issued the real challenge yet, so the right time and place are not determined yet."

Tianmen Palace is the first tower leading to Yujing Mountain from Sixiang City, and is divided into four gates in the east, west, south and north.

"I use Purple Sky Thunder to refine my energy. May is the month when thunder strikes frequently. He will definitely not let me benefit from the weather, so he chose a sunny day."

Hu Wenlang nodded. "He chose the time, so you should choose the place. So you want the advantage of location?"

Zhou Tiege picked up the wine glass and took a sip, then said, "No, I want the advantage of both location and people!"

Hu Wenlang was slightly stunned, and immediately figured out the reason why Zhou Tiege came to see him, "Have you taken a fancy to my book "Qi Xiaosheng's Trouble on Huangquan Road"? "

Zhou Tiege remained silent, because this storybook was the foundation of Hu Wenlang's enlightenment, otherwise Hu Wenlang would not have taken such a big risk to go to the ancient battlefield of Crescent Lake, just to see the real Yellow Springs Road with his own eyes so that he could write the second half.

What he wanted was for Hu Wenlang to be included in that story, and this was no small matter.

Historians have a method called "final judgment", using the people's hearts as the pen and the dynasty's fortune as the paper. If you fail to do so, even if you are the best, you will not be able to turn over.

Although novelists are not as good as historians, they are better than historians in terms of taking advantage of people's hearts. They are particularly good at confusing the false with the true, so they have always been scolded by historians.

Hu Wenlang immediately understood Zhou Tiege's intention.

The most important thing in military strategy is harmony among people.

If on the battlefield, Zhou Tiege could command his elite troops at Sunset Pass. Not to mention one monk Shenxiu, even if there were ten of them, they would have to avoid his edge.

However, gambling and fighting in the underworld first limit the advantage of harmony among soldiers. Without harmony among soldiers, it is difficult for them to use their most powerful method, the military formation.

Hu Wenlang shook his head. His book "Qi Xiaosheng's Pinghua" was very popular and famous in Tianjing.

It wouldn’t be difficult to add Zhou Tiege to the latest story.

It's just that everyone in the world likes heroic stories. If he wrote Zhou Tiege into the story in the book and made him a hero, and Zhou Tiege lost to Monk Shenxiu, then both he and Zhou Tiege would have been helping Monk Shenxiu for nothing.

"Okay, but I want to see the Sea of ​​Blood and the Pond of Thunder later, so you have to accompany me."

Hu Wenlang raised his glass. Zhou Tiege laughed and raised his glass as well, "It's a deal."

After Zhou Tiege and Hu Wenlang finished their discussion, Zhou Tieyi asked curiously, "How can novelists help us military strategists borrow people's support?"

If this is feasible, with the novels in his memory, once they are written, wouldn't he be invincible in the future?
Zhou Tiege looked at Hu Wenlang.

Hu Wenlang smiled and explained to Zhou Tieyi, "There are only two principles for a novelist: one is to gain fame, and the other is to pass off the fake as the real thing."

"If it's a real fight, among all the schools of thought, there are not many people in the lower three grades who can fight. You studied Confucianism before, so you probably have a deep understanding of this."

Zhou Tieyi nodded slightly, based on his understanding of Confucianism.

The ninth level of Confucianism is "tongyi", which means to be familiar with the classics of hundreds of schools of thought and to understand the profound meaning of their words.

This stage will also enable Confucian scholars to think more agilely, increase their knowledge reserves, and speak more convincingly.

The Confucian school's eight virtues of "rectifying the mind" are to examine the classics of hundreds of schools of thought with the Confucian sincerity and to understand the truth of things.

At this stage, the Confucian scholars have no means of attack, but their mental and spiritual defense capabilities are greatly enhanced, and they can also rebound mental and spiritual attacks.

There was once a record that an eighth-rank Confucian scholar was sent to Lingnan to serve as an official. There were many witchcraft practices in that place. The local gentry refused to be educated, so they asked a witch to use the spell of nightmare to harm him. The Confucian scholar had a splitting headache in the middle of the night, so he got up and read the Confucian classics. After a while, his condition improved. The next day, the witch died at home with blood coming out of all her orifices. The local gentry was so frightened that they submitted.

The seventh level of Confucianism is "self-cultivation". During this stage, Confucian scholars can practice riding and archery, rituals, music, calligraphy and painting, and other skills.

The Confucian scholars at this stage finally had the means to attack, but they had their own biases. Even those who were best at riding and shooting would find it difficult to go head-on with a seventh-grade martial artist.

"We novelists come from Confucianism, but our predecessors didn't work hard, so we could only be small officials, collecting local customs and geography. The ninth-level cultivation method is the same as Confucianism, both of which are 'common meanings', but it is difficult to pass the eighth-level 'rectification of the heart'."

"So I found another way. Since I was already confused by reading books and couldn't get the so-called sincerity of Confucianism, I decided to become a crazy person and write my own set of theories. Therefore, the eighth grade of novelists is called 'Li Shu'."

Zhou Tieyi found this interesting and interrupted with a smile, "If I remember correctly, the highest level is to establish virtue, followed by establishing merit, and then establishing words. The third Confucian level seems to be 'establishing words'."

"Isn't that right?" Hu Wenlang complained, "It is because we are not as good as the Confucian masters that we can only call it 'establishing a book'. However, the books we establish are different from those established by the Confucian masters, who will be celebrated by heaven and earth and visited by thousands of people. We can only spread the truth by walking around the streets."

"So the novelist Qipin 'came on stage'."

Zhou Tieyi thought of the terrace on the second floor of Qingyifang and asked, "Are there many storytellers who are practitioners of novels?"

Hu Wenlang smiled and said, "You can also be an opera singer. Anyway, you can do whatever it takes to gain fame. It's our predecessors' fault for not working hard."

Seeing that Hu Wenlang was speaking in a pitiful manner, Zhou Tiege interrupted him and began to teach his brother earnestly, "Don't underestimate novelists. They are born out of Confucianism, so the seventh-rank 'going on stage' is similar to the Confucian 'self-cultivation'. They know a lot of things, and you never know which method will be able to get you hooked."

"For example, this guy in front of you, who imitated the howling of a thousand ghosts with his ventriloquism, tricked two fifth-grade masters into losing their way at Crescent Lake and mistakenly entering the Yellow Springs Road."

"That's impossible. It's you who led the way with your thunder and lightning energy, driving away the evil spirits and making them mistakenly think that the path we took was the path to the world of the living."

Hu Wenlang still smiled and did not take any credit for himself.

(End of this chapter)