Chapter 40 of 100

Chapter 40

13 min read3,163 words

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After a long while, Bufan finally reacted. Perhaps because the world of Jianghu was too real, he had forgotten that this was ultimately a game world.

The creator of this world was still the federal government, so the depth of ancient literature within the Tianwu Imperial Dynasty in Jianghu entirely depended on how much ancient culture the federal government had excavated.

If the federal government had a lot of knowledge about ancient literature, then naturally, there would be more ancient texts in Jianghu!

And if some ancient knowledge was scarce in the federal government, then it would naturally be scarce in Jianghu, such as Li Bai's poetry!

Although Bufan couldn't understand why literary works that were so common in his previous life would be so scarce in this world, he still memorized a few classic poems first.

In fact, Bufan had overlooked one point. Since this could be a question for Bufan, there must be an answer, and for such an open-ended question, there wouldn't be just one answer.

It was just that Bufan had overlooked the difficulty of obtaining these cultural works.

"Little Master, how about it, can you recite five poems?" Seeing Bufan remain silent for a long time, Zhang San gently reminded him.

"Um, sorry!" Bufan, who had been lost in thought, was startled awake. Realizing he was still in the test, he immediately apologized to Zhang San.

Then, without hesitation, he recited "Thoughts on a Tranquil Night."

After that, Bufan recalled and recited "Viewing the Lushan Waterfall," "Departing from Baidi City Early in the Morning," and "Seeing Meng Haoran Off to Guangling."

However, when thinking about the fifth poem, he was a bit puzzled! To be honest, he had learned countless poems by Li Bai in his school's Chinese textbooks, and later, when practicing calligraphy, he had seen many of Li Bai's poems in the calligraphy books. But now, he couldn't recall them by name.

He did know there was "The Hardship of the Sichuan Road," but the poem was too long, and he couldn't guarantee he could recite it all.

"Have you not seen the Yellow River's waters come from the sky, rushing to the sea and never returning? Have you not seen the sorrow of white hair in the bright mirror of the high hall, turning from black silk in the morning to snow by night..."

As he thought, the lines of "Ode to Wine" came to Bufan's mind, and he recited them subconsciously.

"Good, I didn't expect Little Master to be such a learned scholar, please!"

After Bufan finished reciting "Ode to Wine," Zhang San shouted loudly, waking everyone who was immersed in the poetry of Li Bai. Then, he pointed to the mountain path behind him and loudly said to Bufan.

"Thank you!"

Bufan bowed to Zhang San in gratitude and then, under the envious and jealous gazes of the others, walked along the mountain path toward the stone cave above.

"Is there anyone else who wants to take the test?"

Behind Bufan, Zhang San's voice asked again, but he no longer cared. Now, he tried to make his movements as natural as possible and stepped into the stone cave.

Thinking about being able to see the first supreme martial arts manual soon, Bufan was filled with excitement.

Of course, before coming, he had considered the issue of the "Tai Xuan Jing." Many people thought that the "Tai Xuan Jing" was suitable for the illiterate to learn because Shi Potian was illiterate!

But in reality, it wasn't like that. Bufan had first watched the TV series of "The侠客行" (The Wandering Swordsman) rather than reading the original novel, but after becoming interested in the novel, especially the annotations of "The Wandering Swordsman," he went back to read Jin Yong's original work and finally understood the principles of the martial arts in "The Wandering Swordsman."

The "Tai Xuan Jing" in "The Wandering Swordsman" wasn't something that only the illiterate could learn; it was just that being illiterate was a factor that led Shi Potian to discover the secrets of the "Tai Xuan Jing."

Because he was illiterate, he couldn't read the inscriptions on the stone walls, so he wouldn't be misled by the textual annotations!

Secondly, he looked at the stone carvings as if they were pictures, and naturally, he would notice the peculiarities.

In other words, the secret of the "Tai Xuan Jing" wasn't about the level of knowledge but about the angle and focus when looking at the stone carvings.

Jin Yong wrote in the original text: "He looked at the stone wall and saw that it was densely covered with characters, but among the thousands of characters, some strokes were clearly long swords, about two or thirty of them!"

In other words, the key wasn't the text on the stone wall but the sword-like strokes and the peculiarities in the pictures!

As long as one knew the secret, they could follow the pictures and gradually guide the practice, which was the method of cultivation in the "Tai Xuan Jing."

Moreover, Bufan felt he had something in common with Shi Potian: his lack of understanding of graphics.

As he had expected, the text on the stone walls would be in traditional Chinese characters, and Bufan, who had always learned simplified Chinese, had little knowledge of traditional characters. Thus, even if he had a vast literary talent, he was still, in a strict sense, half-illiterate.

Sure enough, when Bufan entered the first stone chamber, he saw that all the annotations on the walls were carved in traditional Chinese characters, and many of them were distorted, unlike normal strokes.

There were a few people in the stone chamber, and they only glanced at Bufan indifferently when he entered, then paid no more attention to him.

Bufan didn't mind and walked straight to the stone wall, starting to read the first line of the poem.

"Zhaoke Manhuying!"

The large traditional Chinese characters were carved on the stone wall in a flowing style, with many annotations below, and there were also pictures carved beside them.

The stone chamber was brightly lit, like daylight, and Bufan sat cross-legged under the stone wall, staring at the characters and pictures, trying to find the secrets.

However, many things are easier said than done. Even though he knew the secrets of "The Wandering Swordsman," finding the peculiarities in the poem wasn't easy.

He stared blankly for a long time but found no clues. Thinking about this, Bufan couldn't help but scratch his head, feeling a bit discouraged.

Then, he continued to sit there, recalling the descriptions in "The Wandering Swordsman" and Shi Potian's actions.

He knew that in "The Wandering Swordsman," each line of the poem contained different martial arts, some sword techniques, some palm techniques, some lightness skills, and some internal skills.

The final tadpole script was the general internal skill of the entire supreme martial arts, which could integrate all the supreme martial arts. Only then would it be a complete set of supreme martial arts.

"It seems Shi Potian first discovered the peculiarities in the second stone chamber, I remember!" Bufan recalled the memory in his mind, uncertainly saying to himself.

Then, he walked to the second stone chamber! (A great event where cool phones and more await you! Follow the qdread WeChat official account (add a friend on WeChat - add an official account - enter qdread) and participate immediately! Everyone wins, so follow the qdread WeChat official account now!)

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