Ping’an County Office.
Cheng Lidong stands in the courtyard.
His expression was certain.
“Your Excellency, since we can be sure, then why not just arrest him? Practising a foreign art is not a minor crime, even if it’s just a suspicion, he can be arrested and taken to the main prison.”
The hawkish nose stepped forward as he looked towards Cheng Lidong and couldn’t help but speak out.
“No need.”
“Although I am certain that he has practiced a foreign art, there is no substantial evidence.”
“After all is said and done, it is still related to the new dynasty, and the foreign arts have to be removed, but it cannot be like the old days.”
Cheng Lidong shook his head.
Immediately afterwards, he continued to speak.
“You send two people to keep an eye on them, say that the road to the government exams is rather hard, and that they are worried about their safety and escort them to South Yufu.”
“When he arrives at South Yufu, whether or not he has practiced the supernatural arts, ask a Confucian scholar to come and examine them personally to know whether they are true or not.”
“We can’t tell if there is a demonic seed in the body of a practitioner of the supernatural arts, but a Confucian cultivates the spirit of righteousness, which naturally restrains such evil spirits, so they can detect it at a glance.”
“As long as he goes to South Yufu, it is a case of catching a turtle in a jar for us.”
Cheng Lidong explained.
The reason for not capturing Xu Qingnian was that he was still worried about causing trouble for the ruler, but as long as Xu Qingnian did not leave his sight, there would be no problem.
It was only a matter of time.
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
The hawk-nosed nodded.
It was also at this moment that a figure quickly appeared.
“Report! Lord Cheng, we have found traces of the fugitive.”
As the voice rang out, Cheng Lidong’s expression in the courtyard instantly changed.
“Lead the way.”
He shouted out these words very coldly, and then the crowd quickly left.
And at that moment.
Zhou Ling’s home.
It was already the second hour of the eleventh hour.
The sky had long since darkened.
In the inner hall, Wu had set the meal on the table, and the hot dishes were emitting fragrance as Zhou Ling, Chen Xinghe and Xu Qingnian were seated separately.
“The food is ready, you guys hurry up and eat.”
Wu greeted and then walked towards the door.
Soon, there were only three people left in the room.
However, Zhou Ling was somewhat silent, Chen Xinghe was also thinking about something, while Xu Qingnian seemed calm.
He came to Zhou Ling’s home in two hours, and then told all the things that had happened during this period of time, but of course the matter of practising the supernatural arts would not be told.
He said that he had been poisoned by the poison of the Underworld, and that he had met a fugitive when the poison broke out.
Although it sounded so unbelievable, at least the reasoning and logic made sense.
However, when the matter was finished, Zhou Ling and Chen Xinghe did not say a word, leaving Xu Qingnian somewhat silent.
“Sir, senior brother.”
“The student’s involvement in the matter of supernatural arts is too involved and might affect the two of you, if you are worried sir, Qingnian will never victimise sir, nor will he involve senior brother.”
Xu Qingnian spoke, he spoke calmly, after all, this kind of matter was very involved, and most importantly, he did indeed cultivate the foreign arts.
If it was really found out later, Chen Xinghe and Zhou Ling would also be interrogated, so Xu Qingnian was not saying this as a retreat, but with all sincerity.
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
Zhou Ling waved his hand, he directly dismissed this idea of Xu Qingnian.
“Teacher, the matter of supernatural arts is too involved, the student is not acting, but speaking from the heart, especially for senior brother Xinghe, if it is really involved, it may affect his career, Qingnian cannot afford to take it.”
Xu Qingnian was very serious, he was worried about the implication, so he might as well clear his name now, in that case, he would not pit others.
As for the next path, the big deal is to go alone, anyway, the sky is big enough to be afraid of not having a mouth to feed.
“Qingnian, nonsense.”
“Don’t worry, my master is not worried about this at all, whether you have cultivated foreign arts or not, Xinghe and I can see it with a glance.”
“My master is mainly worried that this Cheng Lidong will be detrimental to you.”
Zhou Ling shook his head, he wasn’t silent because Xu Qingnian was inviting trouble, instead he was silent because he was worried that Cheng Lidong would be detrimental to Xu Qingnian and was thinking of a way out.
And Zhou Ling’s tone was firm, believing that Xu Qingnian did not cultivate foreign arts.
“What is there to fear? This time, the student will definitely be able to win the high school examination, and when the time comes, he will have a merit title to add to his name. If he dares to disadvantage senior brother, I will naturally not stand by and watch.”
Chen Xinghe spoke out, and his words seemed very domineering.
“No.”
Zhou Ling shook his head again.
“Xinghe, you are still too young.”
“The sin of allomancy is far from being as simple as you think.”
“Since ancient times, the foreign arts have been a forbidden thing in all dynasties, not to mention the imperial court, and the entire Immortal Path has strictly forbidden it.”
“If you hide a foreign art, your whole family will be executed, if you practice a foreign art, your nine clans will be implicated, from ancient times to the present, too many people have died because of foreign arts.”
“The good thing is that when a new dynasty was established, His Majesty suppressed all parties after ascending to the throne, weakening the power and surging the dynasty, otherwise, if it were the time when Emperor Wu was alive, as long as Qingnian was suspected, he would at least suffer imprisonment.”
“It is better to kill by mistake than to let go.”
Zhou Ling seriously explained the scourge of foreign arts, and these words made Xu Qingnian somewhat glad to have been born in the right era.
“Then how can I dissolve it? It is impossible to suffer injustice for the rest of one’s life, right?”
Chen Xinghe asked on Xu Qingnian’s behalf.
“My master is just thinking about how to resolve it.”
“But just now a way to dissolve it came to mind.”
Zhou Ling said so, drawing Xu Qingnian’s attention.
“If you want to defuse it, there are actually only two ways.”
“One, this time, Qingnian won the government examinations, and has a merit name, unless it is the government ruler, otherwise, no matter how much Cheng Lidong suspects, he would not dare to touch Qingnian even if he cannot produce absolute evidence.”
“The second is to ask a sixth-ranked righteous Confucian scholar to gather Hao Rang Zheng Qi and open the Confucian dharma eyes to identify the demonic nature, if there is no demonic nature, even the Prefectural Monarch’s intervention will not work, but it is difficult to ask a sixth-ranked righteous Confucian to help.”
“There is only one righteous Confucian in the entire South Yufu, and he is not currently within the South Yufu, but if it really comes to that, my master will definitely step in and find this righteous Confucian by all means, and ask him to prove the innocence of Qingnian.”
Zhou Ling spoke out two solutions.
And after these two solutions were stated, both Xu Qingnian and Chen Xinghe found it somewhat difficult.
Winning the government examination.
Xu Qingnian hadn’t even read much, so how could she win the imperial exams in one sitting?
As for asking a Confucian scholar to come, it was also a bit far-fetched. Everywhere he went, he was a man of honor, a man who was worshipped by scholars everywhere.
If you go up a grade, you are a great scholar, and you are famous throughout the country.
Although Zhou Ling was a scholar and had certain connections, it was far-fetched to ask a Confucian scholar to help him.
But in any case, at least there was still a way, not a way at all.
“If this magic is so harmful, why isn’t it burned and destroyed?”
“It’s causing people to be on edge.”
Chen Xinghe spoke out, looking slightly curious, thinking that this kind of thing was so harmful, why didn’t it burn and destroy it?
“The method of burning, there are also many troubles that are difficult to solve by copying and transcribing, furthermore burning a volume of foreign arts does not mean that it is an isolated copy.”
“The Great Wei Dynasty collects foreign arts and will let the Confucianism greats to study it so as to come up with a method of restraint, and if someone practices its foreign arts, it is also good to distinguish it, simply burning it does not solve the root trouble.”
Zhou Ling gave his reply.
But after saying this, he looked towards Xu Qingnian and said.
“Qingnian, you don’t need to have any burden, in short, if you really haven’t cultivated the supernatural arts, your body is not afraid of the shadow, even if you encounter trouble, my master will help you get through it by all means.”
Zhou Ling looked certain.
After his voice finished, Xu Qingnian nodded, but his mood was inexplicably a little strange.
It was because he had cultivated the foreign arts.
But he couldn’t say these words, not because he was afraid that Zhou Ling would raise an accusation against himself, but Xu Qingnian was worried about involving Zhou Ling and Chen Xinghe.
“Alright, let’s eat first, Qingnian, you should study well in these few days, don’t mess up your mind.”
Seeing that Xu Qingnian only nodded but did not say anything, Zhou Ling opened his mouth and told the two not to think about anything and to eat first.
Xu Qingnian didn’t say much and lowered her head to eat.
It was midnight.
The night was dark and the moon was sparse.
Inside the study.
Xu Qingnian slowly put the pen down, the white paper was already filled with hundreds of words, the font was neat, simple and clean.
However, Xu Qingnian’s heart had not calmed down.
He had been practising for an hour.
But the more he practised, the more disordered the words became.
If his heart was not calm, his words would not calm down.
Putting down the brush in his hand, Xu Qingnian stood up and looked through the window at the black dome of the bright moon.
Her mood was inexplicably complicated.
After dinner, Xu Qingnian could not calm down his mood.
Especially when he learnt that those who practiced the supernatural arts would be implicated in the nine clans, he could not calm down any more.
He had always thought that practising the supernatural arts was just his own bad luck, but today he realised just how severe the imperial court was on the supernatural arts.
If one day he was really found to be practising the supernatural arts, would he not implicate Zhou Ling, and even Chen Xinghe.
Zhou Ling had done his best for himself as a gentleman and did not dislike him, but if he had pitted himself against him, this hurdle Xu Qingnian could not pa*s inside.
It was night.
Xu Qingnian was silent for a long time, one thought after another flashed through his mind.
He wanted to leave.
He wanted to go to South Yufu by himself.
He even wanted to escape from South Yufu, so that even if he was discovered, he would have nothing to do with Zhou Ling.
He had not formally worshipped his master, so he could not be considered a master, but if he took his master’s letter of recommendation to take the provincial examination, the relationship would be fixed.
Just as Xu Qingnian was thinking about it, the door of the room was suddenly pushed open.
It was Zhou Ling.
He walked in carrying an oil lamp.
“Sir.”
Xu Qingnian was a little surprised, he did not expect Zhou Ling to be asleep at this hour.
“Qingnian.”
“It’s getting late, it’s time to rest.”
Zhou Ling spoke as he reminded Xu Qingnian to rest.
“Oh.”
Xu Qingnian nodded, just thinking about it, he sighed slightly and was about to open his mouth to say something when Zhou Ling’s voice rang out again.
“Qingnian, I see that you have something on your mind today, and although I don’t understand it, I can guess some of it.”
“However, listen to what I say first.”
“The sage said that if you are poor but not taught, you are not a teacher, and if you are wise but not taught, you are self-taught.”
“There is no good or bad in this world, everything follows the heart. I can see that you are a diamond in the rough, although you and I have only crossed paths for a few days.”
“But I will not be wrong about you, you have a good heart, you know right from wrong, you are good at recognising evil, no matter what happens, I believe you and I understand that you have a hard time.”
“Don’t worry about anything, study well, but make sure you don’t forget the goodness of your heart.”
“I have come to find you, one is to wake you up to rest earlier, and the other is to give you words, are you willing?”
Zhou Ling’s words made Xu Qingnian a little dazed.
Obviously, Zhou Ling had sensed something.
Yes, Xu Qingnian’s behaviour today was indeed a bit odd. Zhou Ling had been teaching for so many years, so he was naturally skilled in reading people’s words and was not a fool after living for so many years, and he had vaguely guessed something.
But what made Xu Qingnian froze.
Under such circumstances, Zhou Ling was still willing to accept himself as his disciple and teach himself with holy words.
Xu Qingnian was truly moved.
A full half a ring pa*sed.
Xu Qingnian came back to his senses, he looked at Zhou Ling and then slowly knelt down on the ground.
“Student Xu Qingnian, please give me the words, sir.”
