Angry Banana
Chapter 263: A Degenerate Scholar
As the autumn rain drizzled softly, it began to rain in Hangzhou on this morning when he was to attend a poetry gathering. Search: (Complete Story Site) to read high-quality literature for free.
As Ning Yi walked under the eaves where raindrops strung together, he heard the sounds of "swish, swish, boom, boom" coming from beyond the wall. He knew it was the sound of the girl named Liu Dabiao practicing her saber techniques. Every day, this was the only thing that the girl would do, rain or shine.
After exchanging greetings with the guards, he passed through the side gate, and Ning Yi saw the scene of her practicing. In the heavy rain, the huge martial arts arena was occupied by the girl alone. She still wore a bamboo hat and wielded the giant blade, running around the arena, her figure shifting like an intense and graceful dance. The falling rain had already soaked her clothes, and almost every swing and spin brought out a waterfall of water in the air, as if exploding.
She had practiced internal martial arts since she was a child, so she wouldn't get sick from the rain. However, every time Ning Yi saw this girl wielding the large saber, he felt a strange sensation in his heart. The saber's momentum was fierce and tyrannical, and the wooden stakes and small trees at the edge of the arena would break upon contact. Sometimes, it would violently scrape up rubble from the ground. Most of the time, however, it looked as if the large saber was pulling the girl forward. Sometimes, her body would fly out, and sometimes he saw her staggering, her steps faltering, as if she were about to fall or be lifted off the ground by the saber, making people wonder how she managed to swing the large saber in the first place, and whether she was controlling the saber's momentum or whether she was being dragged around by the saber's inertia.
However, although it looked from beginning to end like a young shepherd girl desperately holding onto a crazed ox that was running wild while crying, she never really allowed the saber's momentum to escape her control. As for the true power of this saber, perhaps only the countless souls who had died under its force could give a fair judgment. He had also seen in the battle in Taiping Lane that when the girl, wrapped in the large saber, was thrown over like a cannonball in a spinning motion, her momentum and power were truly unstoppable. It was estimated that not many people could really block the deadly smash of this large saber under its massive inertia.
Besides an ugly maidservant next to Liu Dabiao, Liu Tiannan, the manager of the manor, was also watching this scene at the edge of the arena. Ning Yi exchanged a few words with him about the day's affairs. Liu Tiannan smiled and asked, "What does Young Master Ning think of the Manor Lord's saber technique?"
"Too much force, too many feints. Look at Dabiao's faltering and staggering steps. I think... uh, what is she going to do?"
From afar, the saber-wielding girl seemed to glance over here. Then, the saber's momentum suddenly sank behind her, and she charged forward, dragging the giant blade.
In the rain, what exploded on the ground were splashes of water, like lotus flowers blooming in the rain with each step. No one knew how her petite body could unleash such tremendous power. The distance between them rapidly closed, and the girl and the giant blade seemed to merge into one. The giant blade, the girl's body, the giant blade, the girl's body rotated and enlarged in front of Ning Yi's eyes, alternating four or five times in succession, and then the whole person unfolded with a bang in front of Ning Yi.
What appeared before Ning Yi's eyes was the girl holding the saber with both hands, her entire body stretched to the extreme. The giant blade pointed straight at the sky from below, interspersed with a loud noise. Stone chips flew, and it should have been the stone railing along the edge of the arena that had been cut off, followed by a tremor and roar from the eaves.
Ning Yi barely had time to react, only feeling the wind scraping his cheeks with a burning pain. He instinctively leaped to the right, and Liu Tiannan almost simultaneously moved to the left, his wide sleeves swishing out, and the tiles and pebbles falling from the eaves were swept towards the wall behind him, creating a series of sounds.
When Ning Yi rolled and stood up again, the eaves of the corridor beside the arena had been broken open, and the giant blade was stuck in the ground not far from his side. When Ning Yi turned his head to look, the girl's figure landed on the hilt of the saber. In this instant, that figure was tall, graceful, and almost dazzling. The sleeves and skirt suddenly turned from motion to stillness, and the raindrops falling from the sky seemed to have been forced to open up. Of course, in the next moment, the heavy rain continued to pour down. The girl looked at him from the saber, her chest rising and falling, and her breathing became rapid, obviously this move had also taken a toll on her.
"Dabiao, I mean, this will definitely make others underestimate you," Ning Yi said, spreading his hands. Behind the bamboo hat and veil, the girl probably pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. Her body lightly jumped off the saber hilt. Ning Yi smiled and put the back of his hand to his mouth, saying to Liu Tiannan in a low voice, "How can you hear from so far away?" Liu Tiannan did not joke in front of the Manor Lord, but put his hands behind his back, smiling and looking up to examine the eaves that had been cut open.
The girl stretched out one hand and pressed down on the hilt of the saber, making the giant blade tilt, and then used both hands to forcefully pull out the Overlord Saber that was stuck in the soil. Her practice was basically complete.
"The Overlord Saber wasn't originally like this," Liu Dabiao said as she walked, "Although the Overlord Saber of the previous generations was domineering, it still had its techniques. A'sha and A'chang practiced that kind of saber technique, but I can't practice that kind, because I can't lift the saber. I can only swing it up and then follow the saber's momentum, which is more energy-saving. Of course, I couldn't beat many people at first, because I would fall down after a few spins. If you're interested, I can teach you the orthodox Overlord Saber, which uses measured force and has few feints, but it's not good for deceiving people."
The girl still deliberately lowered her clear voice, put the giant blade into the wooden box, and said with a smile, "Anyway, your Six Ways Breaking skill also takes the domineering and fierce path, which is exactly matched with the Overlord Saber."
"Six Ways Breaking?"
"The internal energy in your body. You didn't practice martial arts when you were young, and you missed the best time. This Six Ways Breaking is the most superior skill suitable for you to practice. It means breaking the limitations of the Three Realms and Six Paths... I only heard about it when I was a child, and I can't be sure. Isn't it?"
"No, I heard that this is a second-rate skill..."
Ning Yi frowned. The girl looked at him over there. After a moment, she turned her head and muttered, "A scholar, what's the point of practicing martial arts? It's a mess..." She probably felt that Ning Yi wasn't focused on anything, and that he was practicing martial arts probably because of interest. She would be a little silly to be serious with him.
After all, she was a girl, and her clothes were wet from the heavy rain. She walked towards the door on the side, while Ning Yi and Liu Tiannan walked through another door. Before long, he waited for the girl to come to the study where he handled affairs. There was nothing to do today. The two chatted for a while, and the girl asked, "I heard you're going to the Four Seasons House tonight to attend a poetry gathering?"
"Yes, I heard they say the place is nice, so I'm going to join in the fun," Ning Yi said with a smile, "Are you interested?" He knew that the girl sometimes had some pretentiousness, liked to read some books, and then spoke in a literary manner, which was a little funny. But she had never participated in this kind of gathering, so since she was not participating, it didn't matter to invite her.
As expected, after he finished speaking, the girl behind the curtain seemed to shake her head with distress: "I'm not going, I have something to do tonight... and... someone doesn't know how to write poetry, uh-huh, doesn't know how to write poetry..."
"Why not copy a poem, let other scholars write one, and Dabiao can copy it... and say it's her own."
The girl thought for a while, "Is it... possible?"
Ning Yi then replied, "It is possible."
If other scholars heard this kind of conversation, they might not be able to help but laugh. However, between the two of them, they were quite compatible in this regard. Liu Xigua nodded and said, "Okay, then you write a poem for me."
"Ah?"
"You can use it to fill the scene next time. You are the number one talent in Jiangning, right?"
"That one of mine is fake..."
"I know your most powerful thing is martial arts, Brother Human Butcher. We are friends, and good friends should help each other. Thank you in advance..."
"... Okay."
Even though Fang La's court was mostly composed of martial artists, there was still a large group of literati, and it must be said that in this era, literati were still quite superior. Although Liu Dabiao mainly showed a barbaric image in front of others, she occasionally hoped that she could be elegant, after all, she did not sincerely disdain poetry. The two discussed for a while in the room, and Ning Yi wrote several poems in different styles for her to copy. She didn't like Li Qingzhao's graceful style because she couldn't understand some of it. She thought "The mighty river flows eastward, sweeping away all heroes" was too vicissitudes. Although Liu Xigua liked it, she felt it was not suitable for herself.
After writing several poems like this, there was one that she liked very much, and that was *Xiao Ao Jiang Hu* (Smiling Proud Wanderer) because this one was easy to understand and looked very domineering. However, in one of the sentences, "Discussing imperial ambitions in laughter", Ning Yi changed "imperial" to "grand". He still reminded her that this sentence might still be a bit presumptuous, but the girl didn't care. Then she casually picked a poem she liked, *Ode to Gallantry* -- actually, she only liked one sentence, which was "Ten steps to kill one man, leaving no trace for a thousand miles", and the rest, mainly because the poem was too long and there were too many allusions, she didn't understand some of it, and she even misread a word for the first time. She asked Ning Yi: "Isn't this poem a bit unrhymed?"
In this way, after choosing two poems, Ning Yi also gave her a couplet of incomplete lines, which were very suitable for chivalrous people: "Peach blossoms and spring breeze, a cup of wine; Jianghu nights and rain, ten years of lamp". In fact, there was an original poem, but Ning Yi couldn't remember it, and felt that these two sentences were like a couplet... Unfortunately, he couldn't remember the horizontal inscription... He told Liu Dabiao that she could say she had a couplet after the two poems, and test everyone what horizontal inscription they could use. The girl deeply agreed.
Neither of them felt any psychological pressure for what they were doing at this time. However, the girl named Liu Xigua couldn't help but take a few more glances at Ning Yi. After all, she knew that these were all good poems.
"Tonight... may not be peaceful," she thought for a while, and finally said, "If you want to go out, try to come back earlier, or you can let A'chang go with you..."
"Tonight..."
"It's hard to say," she picked up the poems in her hand and shook her head, "You'll know when the time comes. I don't know what will happen now. But... maybe these poems will come in handy, hehe..."
Although she was smiling, it could be seen that the girl opposite her didn't really have much expectation. Something big might happen, but Ning Yi hadn't received too much information here. After talking about these things, everything became the same as usual. After lunch, Liu Dabiao's carriage drove out from Xiliu Street. The things that were going to happen probably had nothing to do with Ning Yi. After another hour or two, before dusk, the Lou family's carriage came from the street. Ning Yi took his saber and flintlock, tidied up slightly, and went out to attend the poetry gathering. (To be continued.) Vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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