It was the first time for Qi An to participate in a banquet of this level when he was so old, and he didn't know what to say, so he could only lower his head and drink and eat food to hide his embarrassment.

Fortunately, most of the heroes in this group of soldiers participated in the battle of Qingliang Mountain, and everyone knew his origin under oral tradition, and knew that this was a young genius master who came out of a poor mountain village, so they didn't care about his embarrassing performance, and took the initiative to toast and talk to him.

Although Qi An was born poor and young, he was a real congenital martial artist, and he was no worse than everyone here in terms of strength, and he became famous in a battle because he broke into Qingliang Mountain alone and killed Li Liuxian, so the people in the hall did not dare to despise him, but took the initiative to put down his identity and pull over the conversation.

Qi An is quick to think, although he doesn't talk much, but his sentences are just right, neither humble nor arrogant, but his demeanor and expression are a little uncontrollable, and he is a little shy.

After the banquet was over, the guests said goodbye and left, and Zhao Song led Qi An to the study, made a pot of good tea, and sat opposite each other.

"Little Brother Qi, I sent someone to invite you this time, but I want to discuss a few things with you. Zhao Song took the teacup, took a sip, and began to get down to business.

"If Lord Zhao has any orders, please feel free to speak up. Qi An also picked up the teacup in front of him and took a sip.

"First of all, last month's suppression of bandits in Qingliang Mountain, the Pingyang County garrison leveled Liuxian Village with almost no loss, you have made great contributions!"

"After the award, Xiaomin just did his best. ”

"You don't have to be modest, if you hadn't killed Li Liuxian desperately, he alone would have caused a lot of casualties to our soldiers. ”

Zhao Song took a sip of tea and said: "In fact, Pingyang County has never used troops against Liuxian Village, because I feel that the risk is too great, and even if we can win, the damage will be extremely heavy." We have already received information from Gaochang Town, Li Liuxian is the pinnacle martial arts, superb martial arts, extremely brave, generally martial arts need at least ten or more to suppress it, plus there are Fan Suo and Li Wei'er from the side to help, unless I Pingyang County poured out of the nest, otherwise there is no certainty of victory. ”

In fact, Zhao Song's words are not false, but quite pertinent. There are more than 500 bandits in Liuxian Village, which is equivalent to the number of garrisons in Pingyang County, and although the equipment and training are not as good as the regular army, they occupy a geographical advantage. The great master Li Liuxian is the peak martial sect, and the other two masters are also martial arts sects, plus twenty-seven martial artists, they are simply the most powerful and arrogant thief force within a radius of five hundred miles.

And look at the Pingyang County garrison here, five full squadrons, the main and deputy captains add up to a total of fifteen Wuzong, all the commanders add up, one hundred martial artists, the strength on paper is indeed stronger than Liuxian Village, compared to just one less peak Wuzong's deterrence, although Zhao Song's strength is much higher than the average Wuzong, but it is also slightly inferior to the peak Wuzong, and the Pingyang County garrison is even more unlikely to completely give up the defense of the whole army to attack, after all, such a large county needs people to garrison and maintain law and order, and Pingyang County is not only the group of thieves who stay in Xianzhai, if other thieves receive the news and ransack the county, how much will be lostTherefore, at best, it is already the extreme to send a force of two or three hundred people to suppress the bandits, and they dare not say that they will win.

"This time is also because the new county commander transferred from the state capital has just taken office, so happy, eager to make some achievements, not to force the official to lead people to attack Liuxian Village, the official is also forced to unite the other two garrison squadrons, a total of 300 people, together to kill Qingliang Mountain, was ready to fight to the death, but I didn't expect to be killed by you first to kill the bandits in a river of blood. ”

Zhao Song smiled, looking very happy, and continued: "Since we eliminated the most powerful gang of thieves in Pingyang County without much effort, the above is very happy, and has given a lot of rewards, plus a large number of property looted from Liuxian Village, so that our garrison and the county commander are very happy, so after discussing it, I will transfer part of the reward to you, after all, if it is not for your help, it is impossible to easily take Liuxian Village, you don't have to excuse yourself, I will give you a list when you go back, and then instruct the next person to take you to receive the reward." ”

"Oh! this can't be helped!" Qi An waved his hand again and again: "My original purpose was only to avenge the village and rescue the kidnapped villagers, and I didn't think about asking for a reward!"

"Okay, don't say it!" Zhao Song patted Qi An's shoulder and said with a smile: "The reward given by the imperial court cannot be refused at will, even if you don't want to accept it, you have to accept it!"

Qi An stopped arguing and answered.

Zhao Song continued: "There is another matter, but before that, the official wants to take the liberty of asking, how did Little Brother Qi come about?

For this problem, Qi An was prepared before coming to see Zhao Song, in order to avoid trouble, he did not tell the truth, but prevaricated: "When I was young, playing with my friends in the village, I once strayed into a valley, and met an unknown knight, he said that it was very pleasing to the eye, so he taught a method of cultivation, I practiced according to this method, and finally luckily entered the realm of innate perfection a few months ago, but this method of cultivation lacked follow-up, so far the realm is the extreme, and it is almost impossible to improve." ”

Qi An didn't say too much detail, but Zhao Song didn't have any doubts after listening to it, after all, there are many strange people who practice in seclusion in the mountains and wilderness, and it is normal for Qi An to meet one, and Qi An can cultivate to congenital perfection at such an age, which shows that the strange person who taught him the cultivation method is very discerning, so Zhao Song said: " It is estimated that the exercises you are practicing are missing the part of absorbing the vitality of heaven and earth and then gathering qi and condensing the truth, and you can only reach the realm of martial arts at the highest level, but this is just right, and what I am talking about next is exactly related to cultivation. ”

"I want to hear it in detail!" Qi An clenched his fists and listened with his ears pricked up.

Zhao Song asked, "I wonder if Little Brother Qi has heard of the Qianqing Academy?"

Seeing Qi An shaking his head blankly, Zhao Song was even more sure that Qi An was a small country man who had never seen the world, so he explained: "In order to cultivate talents, the court set up schools in various states and counties, named Qianqing Academy, which is the only martial arts training institution established by the government. ”

Qi An wondered, "What does this have to do with me?"

"Of course it matters!" Zhao Song said with a smile: "All the people of the Great Qiandi Dynasty who have the strength of the Wuzong have the opportunity to enter the Qianqing Academy for further study, such as the cultivation method after the Wuzong, there are many in the Qianqing Academy, as well as the guidance of famous teachers from all walks of life and a large number of resources to provide, the path of cultivation will be much smoother." The reason why I have summoned you this time is to ask if you would like to study at the Qianqing Academy? If you wish, this official can send you to the Qianqing Academy with a letter of recommendation. ”

Qi An was stunned for a moment after hearing this: "It turns out that there are such good things, I have heard that there are countless strong people in the court, and there are countless cultivation exercises, it turns out that they are all true!"

Zhao Song laughed and said: "As long as you are willing, this official will immediately repair a book for you, and in a few days he will send someone to send you to the backing county town with a letter, which coincides with the beginning of next month Qianqing Academy is just going to enroll students this year, with my letter of recommendation, I believe you will be able to enter the academy easily!"

Qi An didn't refuse, smiled and hugged his fists and said, "Thank you Lord Zhao so much!"

Zhao Song waved his hand and said: "You don't need to be polite, it is the official's job to recommend talents for the court, and the official also sees that you are a young hero and have a talent for cultivation. ”

After drinking the tea, the two chatted casually, and Zhao Song called his subordinates and led Qi An to the guest room to rest.

In the early morning of the next day, Zhao Song sent someone to summon Qi An for breakfast, and there was an eighteen or nineteen-year-old boy beside him, who was introduced to know that this person was Zhao Song's eldest son Zhao Zheng, a martial artist who cultivated and also worked in the army, and was a soldier commander under his command.

"Today it is the turn of the official to patrol the defense, and I will go out after breakfast, this is the dog Zhao Zheng, and he will accompany you to the county government to receive the reward later. ”

After that, Zhao Song didn't talk too much, and after hurriedly finishing the meal, he went by himself.

Zhao Zheng had a good temperament, and he admired and admired Qi An who killed Li Liuxian, but chatted with Qi An a lot, and he hated seeing each other late.

"Brother Qi, take a look, this is the court reward that your father has won for you. ”

After the meal, Zhao Zheng handed over a list of rewards, listing a series of rewards in detail, among which the most eye-catching ones were a beast demon Neidan, ten jade coins, a bottle of Peiyuan Dan with a total of twenty grains, a treasure knife cast in fine iron, and finally a two-entry house that occupied an acre of land in Pingyang County.

For example, in Qinghe Town, where Qi'an passed by at that time, the town tax was ten copper coins per person, and the sum of the town taxes of one million people added up to 10 million copper coins, and in terms of the population size of Qinghe Town, the flow of people was about 1,000 people per day, that is to say, just these ten jade coins were equivalent to the tax revenue of the entire Qinghe Town in the past three years.

That bottle of Pei Yuan Dan is also an extremely precious auxiliary cultivation medicine for Wu Zong, it must be known that Wu Zong's cultivation mainly relies on absorbing and transforming the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi, and Pei Yuan Dan is refined with several precious medicinal materials, containing pure Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi, taking one pill, it is enough to spend several days of penance, this bottle has twenty pills, at least one or two months of cultivation time.

However, the most precious thing is still the beast demon Neidan.

What is a beast demon? It is a beast that cultivates into a refinement, turns into a demon, opens up spiritual wisdom, and surpasses the innate martial artist in strength, which is equivalent to the level of a monk. If you want to kill a beast demon, it is impossible to do it unless the monk makes a move, or a large number of innate martial sects besiege and kill regardless of attrition.

The Inner Pill is the most precious essence crystallization taken out of the body of the beast demon, which is usually used as an alchemy material, and can even be used for refining weapons or other purposes, which is a high-level resource that is extremely difficult for martial artists to obtain.

As for the treasure knife made of fine iron, it is much worse than the previous ones, and it is not a rare thing to enter the house twice, after all, the price of land in the county is cheap, and it is not as expensive as the county town, the reason for this is mainly to enhance Qi'an's sense of belonging to Pingyang County, and the county commander and the county lieutenant are also painstaking, and they are trying to win it at any cost.