New Year's Eve passed, and the New Year arrived.
A new year has begun.
Xie An sat cross-legged in his room, circulating the Bright Jade Skill all night.
"Master, get up and wash. According to the rules, the people from Tang Family Fort will come to wish you a Happy New Year later."
On the first day of the New Year, the younger generation must pay their respects to the elders and offer blessings. Xie An hurriedly got up to wash.
Before long, Tang Qingfeng, as the eldest brother of the Tang family, led Tang Linshi and Little Hongtang to pay New Year's greetings.
Tang Qingyun arrived afterward. Since Tang Qingyun was not married, he came alone.
After a lot of activity, an hour or two had passed. Xie An had a simple breakfast, changed his clothes, and went to the central courtyard.
The younger generation of Tang Family Fort had all paid New Year's greetings to Xie An, so Xie An should return the courtesy and pay New Year's greetings to the Old Master Tang.
As soon as he entered the courtyard, he heard bursts of hearty laughter. From afar, he saw Old Master Tang and his other three virtuous brothers sitting in the gazebo, having tea and chatting around a stove.
Xie An deliberately lightened his footsteps and heard some of the things they were saying.
The three virtuous brothers were recounting what they had seen and heard outside in the past few years. For example, the blacksmith Yi Qiutang got the opportunity to forge swords at the Tai'a Taoist Academy, and since then he has gained honor and his position has risen step by step after returning to the blacksmith camp.
Chen Donghai was previously a commander of the Nanyang Prefecture Navy. After being injured, he retired from the military and ran ships for martial arts masters, and also encountered many strange people and events.
As for Long Xia, he came from a peasant background, and later went to Nanyang Prefecture to be a grain official. After resigning, he went to Jianghu, and what he saw and heard was naturally extraordinarily rich.
Xie An was engrossed just standing outside the gazebo listening.
He had lived in Qingwu County all his life and had never seen the outside world.
Now, listening to the stories of Long Xia and the others, he felt even more that the outside world was extraordinary and colorful.
Just as Xie An was in a daze, Long Xia's voice came.
"Fifth Brother, don't stand there. Come over and have tea together."
Xie An walked into the gazebo, but did not rush to sit down. Instead, he cupped his hands to the four of them, offering New Year's greetings and blessings. This brought a nod from everyone, and Long Xia pulled Xie An to sit down.
"Don't pay too much attention to these formalities. We understand your intentions. Sit down and talk."
After a round of greetings, everyone continued to talk about what they had been talking about before, not treating Xie An as an outsider at all. And Xie An also listened carefully to the three of them telling strange and interesting stories that happened outside.
For example, Chen Donghai, who ran ships, saw a giant fish dozens of feet long in the Da Huai River, which overturned more than a dozen fishing boats, prompting the local navy to encircle and suppress it, resulting in heavy casualties. In the end, it was the people from the Demon Suppression Division who came forward to kill the giant fish dozens of feet long.
Xie An raised an eyebrow, "Demon Suppression Division?"
Chen Donghai said: "What, Fourth Brother, haven't you heard of the Demon Suppression Division?"
Previously, the backup plan that Wei Dian prepared was an official position in the Qingwu County Demon Suppression Division. It was just that Wei Dian was poisoned by the corpse poison pill and had no future. Later, he gave this official position to Lin Yun. And Lin Yun felt that he might die in the Dengtai Examination at that time, so he gave that official position to Xie An.
At that time, it was the first time Xie An had heard the three words Demon Suppression Division.
As for what this Demon Suppression Division did, Xie An had no idea.
Seeing that Xie An didn't speak, Long Xia came out to smooth things over: "Fifth Brother is still a Second Level martial artist, it's normal not to know the existence of the Demon Suppression Division."
"Please enlighten me, Second Brother," Xie An asked humbly.
Long Xia narrated in detail, "Since the demise of the previous dynasty, wars have broken out frequently in various places, and powerful families have divided the territory. Although the new dynasty maintained the superficial stability of the Great Qian, there were undercurrents. With too much killing and too much bloodshed, there were also more demons and evil spirits. Emperor Jingtai had no choice but to respect Taoism as the state religion, use the power of Taoism to eliminate the demons that were causing trouble in the world, and at the same time suppress the powerful families and stabilize his regime.
Therefore, the imperial court and Taoism jointly established a special institution — the Demon Suppression Division. And they gave this institution the power to slay demons and eliminate evil, supervise hundreds of officials, and suppress powerful families. They also specially allowed the Demon Suppression Division to first execute and then report.
Over the past hundred years, relying on the power of the Demon Suppression Division, the order of the Jingtai New Dynasty has gradually stabilized…"
Under Long Xia's narration, Xie An roughly understood.
This Demon Suppression Division is equivalent to an institution like the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but it is much more powerful than the Embroidered Uniform Guard. And it is under the dual leadership of Taoism and imperial power.
The old dynasty was overthrown, and the world was divided into four parts.
If it were a low-martial world, the imperial court could suppress the four seas with the army.
And Great Qian should be a mid-martial world, and it is not easy to suppress it with the army. This is how an institution like the Demon Suppression Division was formed.
Xie An keenly realized: This kind of imperial power is actually not stable. If Emperor Jingtai and Taoism have a conflict one day, or if ambitious people are born within Taoism, coveting imperial power… Once Taoism quits, then this world will collapse again.
Xie An does not reject the centralized and unified regime. For empires with large populations and vast territories, this is the most stable structure. But what he rejects is the collusion of bureaucrats and the exploitation of the people.
But no matter how the people are exploited, it is not as miserable as war.
The people suffer when a dynasty rises, and the people suffer when a dynasty falls…
It is true that the suffering and suffering are always the people at the bottom.
It's really true.
Long Xia also said an important piece of information — in order to eliminate the demons in the world, suppress the powerful families, and supervise hundreds of officials. Emperor Jingtai not only established the Demon Suppression Palace in the central government, but also established secondary institutions of the Demon Suppression Division in various states and prefectures — the Demon Suppression State Division and the Prefecture Division.
And Nanyang Prefecture has the Demon Suppression Prefecture Division. Now, the person sitting in the Nanyang Demon Suppression Prefecture Division is a Martial Dao Grandmaster. Compared to the prefect of the Nanyang Prefecture Office, this Grandmaster is the real sky of Nanyang Prefecture.
Xie An listened with emotion, "Didn't you say that there is also a Demon Suppression Division in our Qingwu County?"
Long Xia sighed: "Logically speaking, the Demon Suppression Division should only go down to the prefecture at the lowest level, and generally does not set up subordinate institutions in the county. However, Qingwu County has a special geographical location. On the one hand, it is the southeastern border of the Great Qian Dynasty, and on the other hand, most of the remnants of the former state religion, the Longevity Religion, have fled to Nanyang Prefecture. There is also a collateral branch that fled into the Great Yin Mountain, and it has been almost a hundred years since then. For the sake of peace, the Nanyang Demon Suppression Prefecture Division established a simple office in the county seat, the Demon Suppression Room. It monitors the movements of the heretics and demons in the Great Yin Mountain at all times.
However, there are not many people in the Demon Suppression Room in the county seat, and they act secretly, so it is normal that Fifth Brother, you don't know about it."
So that's how it is.
Xie An vaguely remembered that Yu He had said before. A big figure in Nanyang Prefecture had reached an agreement with the Corpse Refining Hall to prevent the heretics and demons of the Corpse Refining Hall from going down the mountain. This is why the people of Qingwu County have not suffered a devastating disaster for a hundred years.
In this way, this big figure… is very likely to be the big figure of the Nanyang Demon Suppression Prefecture Division.
Everything makes sense.
Demon Suppression Division… it seems very impressive.
Xie An secretly wrote it down in his heart.
Hey.
Chen Donghai suddenly sighed, full of longing: "Martial Dao Grandmaster, what a talented and amazing person, enough to be conferred a marquis and appointed a prime minister, and awe-inspiring in all directions. Even the entire Nanzhou only has two Grandmasters. And our Nanyang Prefecture has a Grandmaster sitting in town. This is already a great honor for Nanyang Prefecture. It's a pity that I have lived for most of my life and have never seen the demeanor of that Grandmaster. I heard that she is still a young and beautiful female hero. That's right, didn't Big Brother see her? Tell me about it again."
Tang Zhengyang sat high in the chief seat, raised his cup and sipped tea, and said with a smile: "I have told you countless times, it's old news, there is nothing to mention."
Chen Donghai glanced at Xie An, "Fifth Brother just came, he hasn't heard it."
Old Master Tang glared at Xie An and said with a smile: "We are walking the path of health preservation in this life, seeking the way to longevity. Those things about martial arts competition and dazzling brilliance are destined to have little to do with us. If you have this intention, it is better to put more effort into the Bright Jade Skill. If you can break through the shackles of attributes and cultivate to the nineteenth level in the future, you can still compete with the Martial Dao Grandmaster."
The eldest brother spoke, and the others nodded in agreement and said yes, and did not mention anything else.
"Fifth Brother!"
Old Master Tang stood up at this moment, with a solemn expression, "The New Year has passed, all things are reviving, it is a good time to practice the Bright Jade Skill. After you read the Bright Jade Skill last night, do you have any doubts?"
Xie An originally wanted to hide it, so as not to scare people by telling the truth.
Entering the Bright Jade Skill in one day… it seems to be a very scary thing.
However, Xie An thought about it again, his Fifth Brother… is still mostly a false component. It's just that Old Master Tang saw that he had cultivated the Crimson Palace Qi, which is equivalent to adding an insurance to Tang Family Fort.
In their hearts, I am afraid that Old Master Tang and the other three do not value him that much.
This feeling was like a famous teacher valuing a promising student, giving extra preferential treatment in the hopes of something. But not necessarily truly valuing them.
After all, potential is just potential, it doesn't represent weight.
Thinking of this, Xie An didn't plan to hide anything and spoke truthfully.
Swish!
The originally lively and relaxed atmosphere suddenly became deathly still. The four old men turned their heads one after another, staring at Xie An in disbelief.
The most stimulated was the youngest, Chen Donghai, "Fifth Brother, are you saying you've entered the door of the Bright Jade Skill?"
Xie An pretended to be innocent, scratching his head, "I'm not too sure about the specifics. It's just that I was idle and tried to circulate my energy according to the mantra in the book, and it seemed… to flow smoothly."
Chen Donghai didn't believe it and said, "Come on, circulate it in front of us and let us see. If there's anything inappropriate, the few of us can correct it a little, so Fifth Brother doesn't take any detours."
Long Xia and Yi Qiutang also came closer. Although they weren't as excited as Chen Donghai, they were also very eager, obviously not quite believing it. They felt that Xie An might have misunderstood, for example, mastering a tiny detail and thinking he had entered the door.
"Okay."
Xie An didn't hesitate, walking to the wooden planks beside the railing of the corridor and sitting down cross-legged. He cleared the distracting thoughts from his mind and entered a minor meditative state according to the Breathing Exercise technique.
Pulse stopped, no breathing.
After his mind was completely calmed, he began to circulate his energy according to the Bright Jade Skill technique.
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The heat flow hidden in the center of his chest radiated throughout his body,窜动 along the surface of his skin. It was visible to the naked eye that there was something slight flowing under the skin. Before long, Xie An's face was flushed, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
After the heat had circulated for one cycle, Xie An stopped his practice. He looked up and saw the four old men on the opposite side staring at him dumbfounded.
"Heavens… It took me a full two years to enter the door back then, and Fifth Brother, you only took one day…" Chen Donghai was greatly stimulated, and his voice changed.
Long Xia and Yi Qiutang were also secretly astonished.
They had cultivated the Bright Jade Skill for decades and were already experts. They naturally had a yardstick in their hearts to measure whether Xie An had grasped the knack.
They had long had a premonition that Xie An's progress might be faster than theirs.
But they didn't expect… it to be so ridiculously fast.
For a time, everyone was so shocked that their minds went blank, not knowing what to say.
Tang Zhengyang was the first to recover, laughing loudly, "Good, good. As expected of Fifth Brother. Our Qingwu County has produced a genius in health cultivation. Even my senior brother, or my master… didn't have such talent back then."
After speaking, Tang Zhengyang heavily patted Xie An's shoulder, extremely excited, "Although Fifth Brother has only been involved in the Bright Jade Skill for a short time, he is a heaven-sent genius, a late bloomer. He will definitely have great achievements in the future. It's possible that he can really break through the shackles of attributes."
The others then gradually recovered.
"Fifth Brother, a genius."
"Big Brother, you really picked up a treasure."
"According to Fifth Brother's achievements, it's possible that we can see a way to break through the shackles in our lifetime."
Xie An quickly got up, cupped his hands, and responded modestly.
After this incident, Xie An clearly felt that the way the four people looked at him was different, with more importance. It was as if there was a feeling of solidifying a formless relationship.
After some small talk, everyone asked about Xie An's insights, and Xie An was not stingy, explaining them one by one. Except for the secret of the Longevity Destiny, he shared all his insights.
Chen Donghai was greatly shocked, "I've spent several years groping to understand these tricks. Fifth Brother is really amazing. Big Brother, how about…"
Chen Donghai seemed to have something to say, but was glared back by Tang Zhengyang, and didn't say anything more.
Even so, everyone's joy was unstoppable, calling him Fifth Brother one after another very affectionately.
Tang Zhengyang's attitude towards Xie An was also obviously much kinder, instructing him on many precautions of the Bright Jade Skill, and finally said earnestly: "Fifth Brother, although you are exceptionally talented in health cultivation, you still need more than ten years of accumulation to achieve something. Now that the world is chaotic, and longevity through health cultivation is still in the exploratory stage, so martial arts still cannot be neglected.
In the martial world, making enemies and encountering bandits are unavoidable. Without enough strength, you will be framed and slaughtered sooner or later. Holding power, and then seeking longevity, is the safest path."
Xie An said, "Big Brother's reminder is correct. An will keep it in mind."
"Well, you are no longer young, it is the age of stability, it is a good thing to start practicing the Bright Jade Skill at this time. Stay at the mansion for a few more days, and it will not be too late to return to Blood Ridge on the seventh or eighth day of the new year. It's good for our brothers to gather more, and we can also exchange experiences and learn from each other."
"I will listen to Big Brother's instructions."
In the following time, Xie An not only worked hard on the Bright Jade Skill and Breathing Exercise in the other courtyard, but also went to the central courtyard to gather with his four brothers, learning martial arts and exchanging health cultivation experiences.
As for the matter of health cultivation, Xie An did indeed exchange ideas with everyone. The four of them were experienced and had great achievements, and these experiences were of great help to Xie An. And Xie An had the Longevity Destiny bonus, with high comprehension, giving the other four a lot of insights.
But martial arts… there was no way. In front of the four of them, Xie An was purely a newbie.
Even the youngest Chen Donghai had broken through the five basic levels and entered the inner strength realm, becoming a martial master.
Fortunately, the four brothers were very patient, tirelessly teaching Xie An, either imparting experience, or personally demonstrating, or sparring to guide his fighting style.
Giving Xie An a great harvest.
Seven days passed quickly.
Soon it was time to say goodbye.
On the eighth day of the new year, early in the morning, it was still snowing heavily.
Xie An came to the central courtyard early. He saw that all three brothers were dressed in formal attire, and three green-maned horses were tied to the tree trunk next to them.
Needless to say, the three brothers were leaving.
They were not from Qingwu County, and were called by the old master to spend the New Year and get to know him, their fifth brother.
Now, it was time to part again.
"Fifth Brother, although it's only been a few days, Long Xia recognizes you as his fifth brother. For the rest of my life, you will be my fifth brother." Long Xia stepped forward first, handing Xie An a red brocade box, "I'm a farmer who grows fields, and I don't have anything to offer. This is a thousand-year-old wild ginseng, which can help you regulate your qi and blood and increase your strength. Consider it a small token from your Second Brother."
Thousand-year-old wild ginseng!
Wild ginseng is not comparable to cultivated ginseng. It gathers the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the mountains, the essence of the sun and moon, and is rare even after a hundred years. Not to mention a thousand years!
If added to medicinal supplements, it would be of great help in improving one's martial arts realm.
"Second Brother, this is too precious…"
Xie An was about to refuse, but Long Xia stuffed it back, "If you recognize me as your Second Brother, then accept it."
Xie An didn't say anything more, cupping his hands and saying, "Thank you, Second Brother."
Long Xia laughed heartily: "That's right, between brothers, a lifelong oath, how can we be confined to trivialities."
"Haha, Second Brother has taken the lead, it wouldn't be appropriate for me, as Third Brother, not to show something." Yi Qiutang walked over at this time, took out a piece of iron the size of half a human head, and handed it to Xie An.
Xie An felt it was particularly heavy when he took it, and even with Xie An's strength, it was difficult. It was clear that it was not an ordinary iron ore, "Third Brother, this is…"
Long Xia said: "Fifth Brother, your Third Brother is not good with words, let me say it. This piece of treasure iron is much more valuable than my ginseng, it is celestial profound iron. It is extremely rare. If you find a suitable martial artist blacksmith, you can forge a spiritual weapon. Even if you encounter an inner strength martial artist, you can poke a big hole in him."
Treasure iron that can penetrate inner strength!
Hiss!
Xie An felt a tingling in his scalp. Just as he was about to thank him, Yi Qiutang helped Xie An up, "There's no need to thank me. Although we met by chance, we are brothers. You call me Third Brother, and I give you treasure iron. It's only right."
Xie An solemnly accepted it: "Thank you, Third Brother."
"You guys are really slow, giving gifts and still having to rank them by seniority, it's finally my turn." Chen Donghai stepped forward, took out a piece of beast bone, and stuffed it to Xie An, "I speak directly, this is a piece of fish demon treasure bone that I got in the Da Huai River. Crushing it and adding it to medicine can increase martial arts cultivation. If you polish it, you can cooperate with the iron block your Third Brother gave you to make a spiritual weapon, which is also good."
"Fourth Brother…"
"Alright, men shouldn't dawdle." Chen Donghai waved his hand, not letting Xie An say any sentimental words, then flipped over and mounted his horse, heading towards the gate with the other two brothers.
Xie An quickly chased after them, sincerely cupping his hands, "Three brothers, when will we meet again?"
"In the short term, two or three years, in the long term, five or six years. The martial world is far away, Fifth Brother, take care."
Giddy up!
With a horse's neigh, three fiery horses rushed out of the back door and disappeared.
Xie An stood alone at the door, looking at the vast white snow in the distance, cupping his hands to bid farewell: "Three brothers, take care!"
