Chapter 1: Clouds on the Mountain (I)
Da Luo Yin Zhong Mountain, Taiyi into the Xia.
These two sentences tell about the two most mysterious and powerful sects of the Song State - the Daluo School and the Taiyi Academy, and it is these two sects that defend the north and south of Jinling that they have the long luck of Jinling, and also make the Song State gradually become the head of the Three Kingdoms from the end of the Three Kingdoms of China.
The Daluo sect is the protector of the Song Dynasty, and the Song State is in solidarity with the Song State, the strength is strong, and it has the potential of the world's largest faction; the Taiyi School is all over the mainland countries, cultivating talents for all countries, but it never participates in the political and military affairs of various countries, among which the Taiyi School of the Song State is the most famous.
The fifteenth day of January this year is the day when the Song Guotaiyi Academy recruits new disciples for a hundred years, which is a grand event related to the luck of the Song Kingdom's cultivation realm for a hundred years, which naturally attracts the heads of all forces in the Song Kingdom's cultivation realm to Jinling to observe.
And there are also students from the political and military circles of the Song State who were selected for Taiyi Academy this time, so they also sent a small number of observers to Qixia Mountain to observe, and at the same time found talents among other students.
It is a big deal to recommend talents for the country, and if there are particularly outstanding people in this batch of students who join the court or serve in the military after graduation, it will be of great help to the overall strength of the Song State.
The scale of Qixia Mountain is not large, there are only three main peaks, the middle is the spear peak, straight and steep, straight into the clouds, more than half the mountain is shrouded by clouds and mist all the year round, the left and right two peaks are respectively Longshan and Tiger Mountain, since ancient times, there is the legend of "dragon and tiger guarding the spear of the sky, straight through the nine heavens".
Legend has it that the spear peak was originally a natural and long divine soldier, born with the benefit of breaking the sky, there was a peerless king in history who tried to refine the peak for the spear to kill the thirty-three heavens, breaking the barrier between heaven and earth, so that mortals can enjoy the blessings of immortals.
It's a pity that the last success fell short, unfortunately defeated by the hands of the Haotian Emperor, the defeated people Wang Lispear for the oath, the descendants of the descendants will have someone to come out again, hold this spear to break the sky again.
In order to prevent the Emperor Haotian from destroying this divine weapon for some reason, the soul of the mountain of Dragon and Tiger Mountain was transformed into the two peaks of Dragon and Tiger, and the spear peak was guarded for generations.
Although these legends can no longer be verified, there are such legends that have been circulated, which shows that Qixia Mountain must have had a glorious page in the history of the human race, and the Song Guotaiyi School must have a certain relationship with this legend when it chose this place to build a school.
The Song Taiyi Academy is located in Qixia Mountain, which is the consensus of the Xiuzhen world, but except for the teachers and students of the Song Guotaiyi Academy, no one in the world can say the specific location of the Taiyi Academy.
It has always been a mystery that those monks who have graduated from Taiyi School can remember the experiences and events of their studies after graduation, but they cannot find a place to point out their years of study and life, and it is also the biggest secret that Taiyi Academy can ensure that it will continue to spread.
In recent years, the Song State has been hidden as the head of the three kingdoms of China, so the enrollment of the Song State Taiyi University has also attracted the attention of the Tang and Ming dynasties, and they have sent envoys to observe.
A large number of Song forbidden troops had already entered Qixia Mountain one day in advance, and they cleaned up the displaced people and bandits around Qixia Mountain, drove fierce beasts, insects and snakes away from the mountain, and made every effort to ensure that the entrance ceremony of Taiyi Academy was held normally.
This time, the most elite of the four battalions and eight guards of the Jinling Imperial City were the most elite of the four battalions and eight guards of the Jinling Imperial City, and they were the two most elite of the four armies directly under the Song Emperor.
As soon as the fifteenth day of the first month arrived, there were fires at the foot of Qixia Mountain, which was the arrangement of the soldiers of the two armies in accordance with the Song Guotai school order, raising fire to illuminate the road up the mountain, so as to protect the safety of students and facilitate students to climb the mountain to study.
In fact, the forbidden army of the Song Kingdom did this more of a formality, and there was no effect, the students of Taiyi Academy must reach the foundation building period before entering the school, although the foundation building period is not high in the monk level, but they are all geniuses, how can ordinary mountain beasts and bandits hurt them in the slightest.
As for the difficulty of walking at night, it is a pretext, the monks of Zhuji regard the night as day, if the mountain road is really difficult, you can also use the flying magic weapon to go up the mountain, the Song Emperor's practice is more to let the ordinary people know the respect of the Song royal family for the Taiyi Academy, so that the world knows the importance of the imperial court to talents.
Because Taiyi School only announced that the mountain gate would be opened today, but did not notify when the mountain gate would be opened, in order to prevent missing the opening time of the mountain gate, all the students and observers chose to come to Qixia Mountain to wait before and after.
More and more chariots, horses and all kinds of characters gathered in front of the Xie Ke Pavilion under the main peak of Qixia Mountain, according to the past practice, the Taiyi Academy did not announce that before the mountain, no one could cross the Xie Ke Pavilion, and the defense here was personally responsible for the cultivation disciples of the imperial clan, and no one dared to cross the Lei Chi.
Tianhuo and his party took several carriages and rushed to the foot of Spear Peak before midnight, and Tianhuo led the team, Ah Li, Gu Qingliu, Ding Feng, Sikong Nana, Yan Bingshi, Li Hongfu, and Miaozhi Monk and other students came together.
There were not many people who saw them off, only Duanjun Wang, Dongluhou, Li Mao, Qingping Dao and Wanfeng, compared to other large provinces and the imperial court and the military, their scale was much smaller.
Xuanjizi had rushed back to Xuanji Mountain a few days ago, and the senior brothers of Tianhuo had their own duties, and they had no time to send each other off, in their eyes, the junior brothers would never suffer a loss.
Of the twelve provinces of the Song Kingdom, the two provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou are the weakest, located in remote areas, difficult to travel, sparsely populated, mixed with Han and Yi, and close to the Heavenly Demon Forest and Daomen Spiritual Domain, so the Xiuzhen force is also relatively weak.
The Song State selected ninety-nine new disciples, and a total of 100 people were left by Jia'a, but Yunnan and Guizhou only occupied seven seats in the land of the two provinces, which reflected the embarrassing situation of the Yunnan-Guizhou cultivation realm.
Before leaving, Yan Bingshi of the Heavenly Dao Sect was received by the sect master as an exception, and warned him to let go of his previous grudges when he arrived at the Taiyi Academy, and try his best to have a good relationship with the cultivators of the two provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, otherwise once he was isolated, he would be bullied by the students from other provinces of the Taiyi Academy, and he would seriously lose his learning qualifications.
Yan Bingshi has always been arrogant, except for Tianhuo after the foundation building conference, other students are not in his eyes, but in Jinling a few days, he participated in several student friendship activities convened by students from other provinces, only to find that the strength of students from other provinces is not worse than him at all, among which the strength of students in Liangjiang, eastern Guangdong, eastern Fujian, and Susong is particularly strong.
Yan Bingshi finally learned to forbear after suffering a few dark losses, Yan Bingshi thought in his heart that in addition to Tianhuo, the strength of those people could not be matched at all.
Li Hongfu and Monk Miaozhi are both exquisite characters, and they were also advised by their respective heads before they came, and they had a good relationship with Tianhuo early, and they almost called themselves the second general Hum Ha by Tianhuo's side.
As for Gu Qingliu, they already knew that their strength was not enough, so naturally they would not cause trouble, they just hoped that they could successfully enter the school, but as for their skills in the entrance test, they had never thought about it.
Ah Li is the most relaxed of all, she was originally the identity of observing and learning, and her fox clan cultivation has reached the peak of the Jindan stage, but the human race cultivation is still in the foundation building period, and the entrance test of Taiyi Academy is too difficult for her.
Therefore, the judge of Taiyi Academy went down the mountain two days ago, and personally informed Ah Li that he only needed to take the first level of the three tests to successfully enter the school, which was equivalent to escorting him.
Tianhuo was the most stressful of the all, not only the expectations of the master and brothers for him to expand the reputation of the Xuanji faction, but also the ardent hope of the Daolu Division of the two provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou and the cultivation realm of the two provinces, hoping that Tianhuo could win glory for the cultivation realm of the two provinces and strive to get a good ranking in the entry test.
Qingping Daoist privately handed Tianhuo a storage bag, which contained a large number of cultivation materials, and heard him say that if Tianhuo could get a good ranking in the entry test, the two provincial Daolu Divisions of Yunnan and Guizhou would be highly grateful.
Tianhuo didn't understand why they did this, and after asking the Queen of Duanjun, he found out that this was related to the circulation quota of cultivation materials in each province and the rewards and punishments of the head of the Daolu Division, so the cultivation realms of the two provinces were unprecedentedly united, hoping that Tianhuo could get good results.
Of course, King Duanjun personally also hopes that Tianhuo can achieve good results, Yunnan and Guizhou are his sphere of influence, if Tianhuo, who has a close relationship with him, can achieve good results, his father is estimated to take a high look at him, and he will be sent more errands in the future.
Besides, Tianhuo will definitely become his brother-in-law in the future, and it is absolutely right to have a good relationship in advance.
The reason why Donglu Hou is willing to come to send Tianhuo is simpler, he never interferes in royal affairs and government affairs, but this time Donglu Hou personally took the lead in setting up a gambling game, and did a good job around the ranking of this conference.
With the help of the advertising column of the Yuhua Lane Management Committee, Dongluhou launched the six masters of the students, evaluating two students from Liangjiang, one student from eastern Guangdong, one student from eastern Fujian, and one student from Susong, plus Tianhuo from Yunnan and Guizhou as the six seeded players to compete for the entrance test rankings.
The strength and fame of the remaining five students were famous in the Great Song Dynasty when they were young, and they were widely recognized by the gamblers, but Tianhuo's reputation was not obvious, and it was from the weakest land of Yunnan and Guizhou, so naturally many people were not convinced.
Many people think that he relied on his identity as the backstage boss of the Yuhua Lane Management Committee to enter this list, and his actual strength is not worthy of the name, so they have bought Tianhuo to rank low or not enter the top six.
The key to a successful gamble is to create contradictions and antagonisms, so as to stimulate more people to participate in the game.
When the market was full of doubts about Tianhuo's qualifications, a group of Tianhuo fans immediately appeared, all kinds of revelations and touting, saying that Tianhuo was a rare cultivation wizard in the sky and rare in the human world.
This kind of propaganda immediately stimulated the people who had questioned the strength of Tianhuo before, and the two sides quarreled and confronted each other in various teahouses, restaurants, and entertainment venues, making this Taiyi Academy admission event known to the whole city, and more and more people knew about it, and more and more people participated in gambling and betting.
Supporters of players with different views even did not hesitate to rent the advertising board of the Yuhua Lane Management Committee to express arguments and criticize their opponents.
It's strange to say that the Yuhua Lane Management Committee didn't refuse to come, and even the notices and advertisements attacking Tianhuo were posted correctly, and they didn't care about the face of the backstage boss at all.
Dongluhou took advantage of this to invent more ways to play, accepted all kinds of absurd betting methods and betting items, and became a household name in a few days, and the limelight almost overshadowed Emperor Song.
Because there were too many people who bet, the money and materials betted became an astronomical amount, and Dongluhou found that he had a very large risk of payment.
The only way to ensure a safe profit is for Tianhuo to get the first place in the entrance test, otherwise Dongluhou and the people behind him can only run away and hide overseas.
So in the past few days, Dongluhou has been following Tianhuo every day, for fear that the other party will buy a murderer and plot against Tianhuo, on the other hand, he also wants to see Tianhuo's preparations, but he finds that Tianhuo has no nervousness at all, and there is no action to prepare for war, which makes Dongluhou worried. 8)