Chapter 6 Chapter Six: Drumming Comes and Comes in the Temple

In the Southern Song Dynasty, Confucianism was respected, and as long as it was a little richer, there were Confucian temples, where sacrifices were held in four seasons, and incense was constantly burning.Although Suyang is a small city, it has always had the heart of admiring the sages and educating the virtuous. With donations from local gentry and the support of the government, a Confucian temple was built decades ago to enjoy the incense of the surrounding villages and counties. It was the fourth watch at this time, and both the temple congratulators and the householders who guarded the temple had fallen asleep, and there was silence inside and outside the Confucian Temple.Only a few crows on the locust trees occasionally screamed, making them even more lonely and empty.But in the eyes of the Bizhong official, the strong aura fluctuations cannot be concealed.

Zhu Xi and Lu You looked at each other, secretly heightened their vigilance, and they climbed up the steps side by side.The other five pen officials followed with fear, subconsciously getting close to each other.It was the first time that the Zhuge family and the Wei family were so harmonious. This Confucian Temple is small in scale, and buildings such as Dachengmen, Panchi, and Zhuangyuan Bridge are all lacking. After passing the Lingxing Gate, there is a square that is not too big. At the end of the square is a north-south of a main hall.The main hall is a typical Confucian temple structure, with a single ridge resting on the top of the mountain. There are only five couplets in the whole body, with three spans in the front and back. There are several forked ridge beasts squatting on the top of the hall, and the workmanship is quite exquisite.Next to the hall are two verandahs, east and west, on the left is the village sages, and on the right is the children's hall. On the red walls connecting them are written the words "virtuous match with heaven and earth", "sacred ancestors" and other words.

The group of them arrived at the square in front of the main hall and stood still.Lu You looked around and found that the strong aura came from the statue of Confucius placed in the temple.The statue of the sage of Confucius is crowned with a crown, his face is lifelike, and he is dressed in a plain robe that flutters like a fairy. You can tell at a glance that it was written by a famous artist. Lu You rolled up his sleeves, and was about to enter the palace, but was held back by Zhu Xi.Zhu Xi said solemnly: "Confucius Temple is the source of the world's academic traditions. Even if we want to close our pens on this practice, we should first be courteous and then soldiers. We should be respectful and not blaspheme the sages."

Lu You curled his lips, knowing that he was a pedantic Confucian scholar, so he didn't argue with him, and called the other officials of the pen tomb to kneel down together, and bowed a few times according to the etiquette of offering sacrifices to Confucius.Zhu Xi worshiped very seriously, and the whole set of movements was meticulous. After all seven people worshiped, the statue of Confucius suddenly moved.Only then did everyone see clearly that there was actually a pen standing in Kong Sheng's arms.This tube brush is no different from ordinary brushes, but the momentum is extremely strong.Every pen spirit, to some extent, has some radiance, but this pen does not disperse even an inch, and instead absorbs the surrounding gloomy light. It is extremely black and deep within a few feet around it, as if shrouded in a layer of black mist , It is difficult to see the shape clearly, which makes people feel unfathomable.

Lu You's eyes flashed coldly, and he decided that it was the goal of this trip.At this moment, a burst of powerful spiritual power diffused from the center of the pen spirit to the surroundings, and everyone felt suffocated.Lu You found that this aura was very similar to Zhu Xi's righteousness, but it was a hundred times stronger.This pen spirit seemed to have no intention of hiding, it just appeared in front of them so boldly. A series of handwriting is engraved on its pen barrel, and the letter reads: "Tao originates from the sky, the sky does not change, and the Tao does not change." Just twelve characters, condescending, looking down on all living beings, as if connected with heaven and earth, contains infinity momentum.

"It really is this pen..." Zhu Xi raised his head and stared intently at this most vicious pen spirit since there was a pen mound, with infinite emotion in his heart.No matter how deep his Qi-nourishing kung fu was, he couldn't restrain his emotions at this moment, and trembled from his shoulders to his knees. Celestial pen! Dong Zhongshu's celestial pen! The spirit of the pen was condescending, undisguisedly releasing the awe-inspiring righteousness, and the spirit altar of Zhu Xi, Lu You and the rest of the officials were suddenly overwhelmed by this aura.Zhu Xi's knees softened and he almost knelt on the ground.Even if he was arrogant, he had to restrain his breath at this time.

What kind of person is Dong Zhongshu?Among the Confucian scholars in the world, who can resist his majesty. When Dong Zhongshu was born, he went to Confucius for four hundred years and Meng Sheng for two hundred years. He is a great master of Confucianism who inherits the past and the future.This person laid the ethical foundation of Confucianism's three cardinal guides and five constant principles, and even initiated the theory of "interaction between heaven and man", which became the first essence of Confucian scholarship in later generations—hence the pen name "heaven and man".Master Dong's seniority in Confucianism is only after Confucius and Mencius.Don't say it's Zhu Xi's Ziyang brush, even if it's Yan Shigu's regular brush, you can only bow your head when you see it.

Facing the great sages of the previous generation, Zhu Xi could only bow his head in worship, but Lu You's expression became serious.He knows Dong Zhongshu's handling of pens, and he also knows what happened in the past. After Dong Zhongshu achieved great success in Confucianism, he once advised Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty: "Depose all schools of thought, and only respect Confucianism."After getting the approval of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.Dong Zhongshu personally led his disciples to sweep the world, hunting and killing descendants of hundreds of families.Although the various schools of thought had the secret assistance of the master of the pen tomb, what they were facing was Dong Zhongshu and the entire Han court who had mastered the essence of "Heaven and Man". "Deposed" lasted more than 20 years, until Dong Zhongshu's death, a hundred schools of thought had been killed and their talents withered.Confucianism then began to become an official school and became popular.

Bizuka cherishes the talents of the past dynasties the most, and always tries to prevent them from being wasted.And it is no exaggeration for Dong Zhongshu to kill all the schools of thought in the world for the sake of the supremacy of Confucianism. He is called Bizhong's most vicious enemy. "No wonder the white tiger servant was able to destroy all the brushes. It turns out that its owner is Dong Zhongshu's heavenly brush..." Lu You murmured, cold sweat began to flow down his back. "White Tiger Tongyi" is basically the theory inherited from Dong Zhongshu's "Spring and Autumn Fanlu".

Lu You didn't know the identity of the spirit at first, and he was just anxious; now that he saw clearly that it was Dong Zhongshu's celestial brush, he felt a sense of despair.Dong Zhongshu was in the limelight back then, and even the master of the pen mound could hardly subdue him. Now, with these few pen mound officials alone, can he really collect the pen smoothly? He looked back, and those Zhuge family and Wei family members stood there dumbfounded, captured by the aura of the heavenly brush, their pen spirit was like a chick meeting an eagle, and they didn't even dare to touch it. Outcropping - it's no wonder that there were countless pen spirits who died under Dong Zhongshu's hands, and naturally formed a very heavy evil spirit.Seeing the spirit of the ordinary pen, all of them shy away.

All of a sudden, Lu You glanced at the body of the pen, and he noticed that although the Heavenly Man's pen was astonishing in momentum, the end of the pen was half white and half black.Ordinary brushes dipped in ink usually have a black tip and a white belly; but this celestial brush is completely different from common sense, the tip of the brush is white, and the belly of the pen above it is as black as soaked in ink. "Could it be that is where the seal of the owner of the pen mound is?" Lu You thought about it, and quickly approached Zhu Xi and said, "Old Zhu, Lao Zhu." Zhu Xi was startled by the momentum of the man's pen that day, his eyes were confused, until Lu You shook his shoulder desperately , just like waking up from a dream. Lu You said: "Have you noticed that although this Guan Tianren Brush took the initiative to show up, it never took a step outside the hall. We are standing here, except for a little mental shock, there is nothing unusual about it." Zhu Xi was so clever, he only thought for a moment and said, "You mean it can't get out of the palace gate at all?" Lu Youdao: "Yes, I think the seal of the master of the pen tomb is still effective, so the range of activities of the Heavenly Human Brush is limited, as long as we are outside the hall, it can't do anything." After finishing speaking, he half held the Heavenly Human Brush Mo Banbai's vision was told to Zhu Xi. Zhu Xi wondered: "But we are outside the palace, although it has nothing to do with me, we can't break in." Lu You clasped his arms together, his joints made a crisp sound, and said calmly, "It's easy, let me go into the palace to test it." He said it lightly, but everyone knows that this trip is definitely dangerous Incomparable. Zhu Xi was startled when he heard the words, pulled him back, and said in a deep voice, "Don't underestimate the enemy. That's Mr. Dong Zhongshu and Mr. Dong. We can't fight against him." He learned from childhood and worshiped these great Confucian sages as gods. Seeing it personally, I can't give birth to the slightest resistance. Lu You stared at Tianrenbi, with a playful smile on his lips: "If it were someone else, I'm afraid it wouldn't work. But it should be that Tianrenbi is unlucky this day. Today, I happen to be its nemesis." Seeing his resolute words, Zhu Xi took out a book from his bosom and put it in Lu You's hand: "The essence of Master Dong's life is in this "Spring and Autumn Fanlu". Take it with you, maybe one day people will be able to read it. In the past, there will be no killer." Lu You laughed and said, "You bastard, you are usually dull and talkative, but now you suddenly talk a lot." Zhu Xi let out a "hum", pursed his lips, and replied coldly, "When the book is ready for use, you will hate it less." Lu You laughed out loud when he saw him say a rare joke. Lu You turned around and told the several officials behind him, "If something happens to me, I can disregard my life. You must remember to put away the Congrong pen and return it to the owner of the pen. He lent it to the old man. Yes, it’s okay if you don’t pay him back.” Zhuge Zongzheng and Wei Shiqing looked at each other, and felt that Master Lu seemed to be confessing his last words, neither did he agree, nor did he not agree. At this time, one person stood up resolutely from the line, and said loudly: "Master Lu, I will accompany you in!" Lu You saw that it was Wei Dingchen.He patted the passionate young man on the shoulder, shook his head and said, "This day's human pen is not something you children can handle." Wei Dingchen still insisted, but when Lu You gently pushed him, he suddenly felt sore hands and feet Ma, couldn't help but backed up a few steps, bumping into Wei Shiqing's arms. The Xue Libi and Chang Shibi of Zhuge's family were also young people, they were provoked by Wei Dingchen and wanted to stand up and do justice generously, but Zhuge Zongzheng stared back.Zhuge Zongzheng said angrily: "Everything is up to Mr. Lu's arrangements, don't make up your own mind." Lu You knew what he was thinking, and didn't say anything, but just glanced at him, making the latter feel guilty for a while. After explaining all this, Lu You took "Chunqiu Fanlu" into his arms, tied his turban tightly, and stepped into the hall.As soon as he stepped in, the air circulation in the hall immediately accelerated, and the Celestial Brush floated slightly from the arms of the statue of Kong Sheng, like a host who got up and left his seat to welcome the guests. "Dong Zhongshu! Others are afraid of you, but I, Lu You, are not afraid!" Lu You laughed loudly, then closed his mouth and began to inhale.I saw his abdomen contracted, his entire chest was raised high, and he took in an unknown amount of breath.When he had stored his energy to the limit, he suddenly let out a loud shout, like a thunderbolt, and spewed out a breath rapidly, pushing the air in the entire Dacheng Hall, forming a small vortex in an instant. "Come out!" Cong Rong's pen boldly emerged from the vortex.This pen is radiant and full of sharpness, like countless spears standing in a row, full of murderous intent.The aura around it was forced away dozens of steps by its vigorous heroic spirit, and it was impossible to get close. Tianrenbi stared at it coldly, and an invisible coercion pushed it over.Cong Rongbi was unafraid, standing upright in mid-air without moving, like a boulder in the middle of the river that cut through the torrent, allowing the coercion to rush away from both sides and dissipate. The Celestial Pen seems to be very surprised. Its status is extremely noble and its coercion is astonishing. Even the Lingyun pen has to bow its head and bow its head. How come this humble little pen in front of it is not affected at all?It emitted three pressures in a row, one was bigger than the other, and the last one even implied the awe-inspiring righteousness of Confucianism. Standing calmly with Cong Rong's pen, despite the coercion blowing over his body, he just pretended that the spring breeze had passed through the donkey's ears, and he ignored it.Lu You sneered for a while, regardless of whether the human pen could understand that day, he provocatively said loudly: "Old Master, your nemesis has arrived today!" Lu You gave a low shout, and the Congrong brush immediately turned into two yellow lights, covering his fists.Lu You shook his body, raised two fists the size of a wine jar, and directed a double wind piercing ear towards Tian Renpen. The Tianren Brush suddenly soared from Kong Sheng's arms, avoiding its sharp edge.Lu You's fist was too strong to hold back, and it hit the statue of Confucius, smashing the clay figurine to pieces.Zhu Xi looked a little ugly when he saw it outside the hall, and thought to himself that this was too blasphemy.Lu You shouted loudly in the hall: "Old Zhu, don't be angry. Confucius said: The one who started the figurine has no heirs. This is just a clay figurine. I am doing my best to be a sage!" To everyone's surprise, Tianrenbi seemed to have no intention of fighting in front of Congrong's pen.Lu You punched again and again, bombarding it with the decisive momentum of throwing a pen and joining the army, but it just kept floating in mid-air and dodged, without any countermeasures. Zhu Xi and others didn't know as much about the spirit of the pen as Lu You did. They didn't know that this Congrong pen was a special case among the spirits of the pen——Ban Chao cast the pen that day, which condensed the heroic spirit of a warrior, instead of relying on literati like most other pen spirits Affection.Therefore, in the face of Confucian masters who are at the peak of literati, Congrong pens are not as afraid as other pens, but are eager to try. As the saying goes, one thing drops one thing.Because the white tiger has Ban Gu's soul in it, it can just restrain Ban Chao's Congrong pen; and the warrior's hostility in Congrong's pen can just deal with Wenzong's leader, Tianrenbi.Facing any other pen spirits, Tianrenbi can take the lead, but when it encounters Congrong, it can only run away.As the saying goes, "When a scholar meets a soldier, he can't explain why." Sure enough, as Lu You expected, he chased Tianrenbi for a long time, and found that it only moved around in this Dacheng Hall, but never took a step outside, it was indeed because of the seal.Lu You suddenly noticed that the ink on the belly of the pen seemed to be more black than before, and moved half an inch toward the tip of the pen. "Could it be that the white color of the pen tip represents his current spiritual power; and the ink color is the strength of the seal?" Lu You thought secretly. He knew that there was a method in the pen mound, which was to use the spirit of the pen to dip the ink containing the power of restraint, so as to seal the power of the spirit of the pen, the ink would not fade, and the seal would not be removed.Now it seems that this is the way to seal heaven and man.It's just that the seal here was done by the owner of the pen mound personally, and it's much more powerful than ordinary forbidden ink. However, the two colors of the pen end of the heaven and man ebb and flow, which shows that the spirit power of the pen just now is too great to resist the forbidden ink, so that the ink color starts to soak the pen tip again.Lu You was secretly delighted, thinking that it would take only an hour or three quarters to exhaust the power of the Heavenly Man Brush, and the forbidden ink could be re-sealed. At this time, a shout suddenly came from outside the hall: "Caichen, come back quickly!" Then a figure rushed into the hall. Lu You was shocked, turned his head to look, only to find that Wei Caichen was holding a Shangluo stick, his face was full of color: "Lord Lu, you and I work together to capture this monster as soon as possible!" It turned out that Wei Caichen saw that Lu You was playing very easily, and felt that the momentum of the strokes was amazing, so it turned out to be nothing more than that.Wei Caichen has always been proud and arrogant, just now he felt very humiliated by the white tiger rushing into the battle, now seeing the weakness of Tianrenbi, he wanted to take this opportunity to make up for his mistakes and make a great contribution. As soon as the Tianren Brush was seen, another official came in, and the tip of the brush swung lightly, and the awe-inspiring righteousness around the brush body condensed into several vortexes, showing an orthodox style. Wei Caichen held the Shangluo stick, pointed at the sky, and shouted: "Monster, hurry up and die!" Lu You hurriedly shouted: "Idiot, get out of the hall!" Before the words fell, those orthodox righteousness gathered together to form a huge palm.The palm of this giant palm is facing down, and the five fingers are spread apart, which can almost cover half of the palace, and there is an incomparable majesty between the fingers.A stern and magnificent shout sounded out of thin air: "Deposed!" The voice was high and high, as if it was sanctioned by the gods.The giant palm slapped Wei Caichen head-on, like a mountain pressing down on the top.Wei Caichen held up his long stick, intending to block it.There was a sound of "boom", and the smoke and dust splashed everywhere. The palm had already captured Wei Caichen and Shang Luo's pen, and the whole hall trembled. Lu You was startled and angry, his right fist shook violently, and a golden fist wave rushed over.It's a pity that it was too late, when the giant palm was raised again, Wei Caichen's figure was no longer on the floor, but there were some fragments of spirit bones between his fingers.Several people inside and outside the hall were horrified to the extreme. Unexpectedly, with a light slap of this giant palm, a Bi official and Bi Lingsheng were smashed into powder. "Die! Old Master!" The shadow of Lu You's fist instantly filled the air.That day, the human pen closed its giant palm, rolled a few times, dodged extremely fast, and there was still a long string of fog formed by awe-inspiring aura trailing from the end of the pen.The fog circled around a few times, absorbing the scattered remains of Shangluo pens one by one, and there were occasional flashes of inspiration in the fog.After a while, the hissing gradually disappeared, indicating that the Shangluo Biling, which was born only a hundred years ago, had been completely swallowed by the Tianrenbi. The style of the Tianren brush is a little more brilliant at this time, like a beast that has eaten its prey.Lu You was surprised to find that the ink color on the belly of Tianren's pen had faded a few inches upwards, and the white tip of the pen was much larger than the area it just occupied.It seems that this Heavenly Human Pen relies on devouring the spirit of the pen to increase its strength.The more pen spirits you eat, the more forbidden ink fades.When the tip of the brush turns white completely, it is the time when the Tianren Brush is completely liberated. Lu You just lost his mind for a while, when the human pen suddenly jumped in front of him that day, the billowing black air turned into a bloody mouth, and swallowed towards the Congrong pen attached to his fist.After Lu You saw that the Celestial Brush had devoured the spirit of the brush, he was no longer afraid of the sharpness of the Congrong Brush, so he could only wander around and fight, not daring to confront it head-on.The situation in Dacheng Hall immediately reversed. The hall was soon filled with a billowing mist formed by awe-inspiring righteousness, and people outside the hall couldn't see clearly what was going on inside. Seeing that Lu You was in danger, Zhu Xi hurriedly called out the Ziyang pen, and at the same time shouted to the other four: "Let's go forward together and give the pens. As long as Brother Lu forms a pen array, we will be invincible." But both Wei Shiqing and Zhuge Zongzheng showed hesitation on their faces.Zhuge Zongzheng said with a wry smile: "Master Lu is still unable to resist. If we go, don't we die in vain and fail Master Lu's entrustment? Brother Wei, am I right?" Wei Shiqing nodded silently. Ever since seeing Wei Caichen After his death, his whole face was haggard, and he had no intention of fighting at all. Zhu Xi snorted coldly and stretched out his hand: "Bring it." Zhuge Zongzheng was stunned and said, "What is it?" Zhu Xi said: "The ones you collect your pens must have spiritual weapons, right? The Wei family's pen container has been destroyed by the white tiger, so you must still have it." Zhuge Zongzheng couldn't believe his ears: "You still want to close the pen now? It would be nice if you can escape with your life!" Zhu Xi grabbed him by the collar and said coldly: "Bring it." The Ziyang brush on his head was shining brightly. Zhuge Zongzheng knew that this person's strength was unfathomable, so he could only swallow his saliva, and took out a fish book tube from his bosom .This fish book tube is made of Xiangzhu, and the carving is very exquisite. It is engraved with cold plums in winter. The most rare thing is that there is a poem about plums written by Wang Shi on the mouth of the tube: "Suddenly I saw a cold plum tree, and the flowers bloomed by the Han River. I don't know." The spring is early, I suspect it is a beadman", which is the authentic handwriting of Liu Gongquan, which is quite spiritual. Zhuge Zongzheng said with some reluctance: "This is my family's ancestral spirit, I can only borrow it temporarily..." Zhu Xi didn't listen, snatched the fish book tube from Zhuge Zongzheng's hand, and rushed into the hall. Not long after, there was a roaring noise in the hall.Zhuge Zongzheng and the others didn't know what happened, so they walked a few steps closer to see what happened.Suddenly there was a long whistle, and a pen broke through the mighty mist and rushed out of the hall.Those four people took a closer look, their faces changed suddenly, they turned around and wanted to escape, but it was too late. Hanging in front of these few pen officials is the triumphant Tianren pen.