荒墟牧神 - 第1137章 龍山陣圖 - 錦書坊

"The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping is the true lady-killer. Beside him, the Yin Son of Heaven is a man of empty reputation!" Emperor Yanfeng looked at Yan Yunxi's forlorn, soul-shattered appearance and felt a little pity for him, but far more admiration for the former Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, Jiang Baigui. This friend of his had always shown women a cold face. Back in Jingping he had set his whole heart on becoming a Sage, and had no thought at all for the pleasures of man and woman; he even counted them a burden, a dead weight. Had he himself not forced a marriage upon him, and had Shen Mu not talked him around, Jiang Baigui would most likely still be a man alone. He had it in him. Jiang Baigui was a man of utter sincerity and true feeling: once his heart was moved, it would never wander again. Even if Yan Yunxi were fairer and cleverer than the wife of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, he would not give it a moment's thought. That, too, was why the Imperial Preceptor's wife was easy about his leaving Jingping. With a single sentence Jiang Baigui had smothered the thoughts in Yan Yunxi's heart; cruel, one had to admit, was his method. Jiang Baigui bowed and said to Yan Yunxi, "Martial Uncle, I am worth an army of a million gods and demons. Should Jingping ever be in peril, I beg Martial Uncle to come to its aid with a million gods and demons." Yan Yunxi's face was pale; he nodded in silence. Jiang Baigui straightened and said in a low voice, "Then Martial Uncle may go and bid the Divine King Langwan and Kaihuang make ready." Yan Yunxi departed. Just then a lazy voice came up from below the city wall, laughing: "Little brother, you are quite something." Jiang Baigui and Emperor Yanfeng looked down from the wall and saw a great fellow in rags sitting in the sun below, idly picking lice off himself and chuckling without cease, a man who looked somewhat unsound of mind. Emperor Yanfeng's eyes flickered, and he said softly, "When did this beggar arrive? Mad as he looks, I never sensed him, and Celestial Master Zixi is a great master besides, yet he did not sense him either!" Jiang Baigui leaped down from the wall and stood before the madman with his hands behind his back, and said easily, "I am indeed something." The madman, still picking lice, raised his eyes to him and chuckled: "A disciple of Wen Tiange the woodcutter? You certainly talk with a bull's arrogance." He rose to his feet, put a louse in his mouth and bit it with a crackle, then spat it out and said, "Wen Tiange was never so grand before me, and he has had the worst of it at my hands. The Heavenly Court's Four Celestial Masters are coming, and every one of them is a man of surpassing wisdom. You and Zixi together could not stand against them." Jiang Baigui said easily, "The Heavenly Court's Four Celestial Masters are old, and their skills are out of date. On the field of battle I am wholly confident of holding them in check." "But overwhelming force crushes a man to death." The madman laughed. "How many people has the Land of No Sorrow? How many Creators? How many rounds of attrition can they bear? Soon you will have no soldiers left to use. You are pitting the Creators and the Land of No Sorrow against all the heavens and all the worlds! You cannot win." Jiang Baigui frowned. The madman laughed. "Are your skills so very good? Wen Tiange the woodcutter was arrogant and overbearing, priding himself on his talent and holding all others in contempt; you seem a shade prouder still." Jiang Baigui said modestly, "I am not the best in Jingping. I have a senior brother who, at the same realm, has always held steadily a line above me. But compared with other men, they are triangles, and I am a straight line." The madman was taken aback, and thought a while before he understood him. "I spoke of wisdom, not of force." "So that is it." Jiang Baigui said, "Speaking of wisdom, then my second senior brother cannot hold a candle to me. He is not so clever as I. Compared wi