“Brother Fang, please drop a drop of blood.” Shi Tang said.

“Oh? Does the lacquer for the zither require blood?” Fang Yun had never heard of this.

Shi Tang smiled and said, “Ordinary lacquer naturally doesn’t need blood, but this is Thunderstone Lacquer, a rare treasure of the world. Combined with other treasures, it can be used to lacquer the sacred zither. One of the four sacred zithers, ‘Scorched Tail’, has a layer of Thunderstone Lacquer applied using the blood drop method. Treasures have spirits, if blood is dropped into it, the war song can be more powerful. If there is a great opportunity, it can even stimulate all the power of the Thunderstone, taking the war song to a higher level.”

“I see, then I will drop a drop of blood.”

Fang Yun said, taking out a needle to prick his finger and squeeze out a drop of blood.

The bright red blood fell into the stone mortar, and the blood slowly spread out, with no change inside.

Shi Tang looked a bit regretful and said, “Ah, there is no change, no thunderous sound, the effect of this Thunderstone Lacquer is probably mediocre, but it will not fail.”

“Oh.”

Just as Fang Yun responded, the Thunderstone Lacquer inside suddenly began to vibrate, and then the entire stone mortar exploded, bursting out a dazzling white light.

Fang Yun and Shi Tang immediately closed their eyes and quickly retreated, followed by a deafening roar of a dragon.

“Roar…”

Both of them frowned, it was too loud, causing a slight pain in their eardrums.

Fang Yun slightly opened his eyes to see a three-inch-long Thunder Dragon hovering in mid-air, roaring towards the sky. Then it swung its tail and plunged into the Courage to Write zither.

“Zzz…”

The Courage to Write zither was shining with thunder light, and countless thread-like thunder lights were wandering on the surface of the zither.

“Hum…”

The seven strings vibrated together, the sound was like a drum, making people’s hearts tremble.

Then the thunder light disappeared, and the surface of the zither body showed tiny silver patterns like the lacquer had cracked.

Shi Tang stared in disbelief and said, “Only the blood of the sages can make the lacquer come to life and enter the zither body on its own. How did you do it? This is simply unbelievable! Fang Yun, do you need a concubine? You can choose any unmarried woman from our Shi family, as long as you are willing to let the child born by the woman of the Shi family change her surname to Shi, to carry on our Shi family’s lineage. We can give you the Great Scholar’s Treasures of Literature ‘Four Directions Zither’ of our Shi family.”

The Demon Barbarians of the entire village were alarmed by the dragon’s roar and the sound of the zither.

“Who dares to make trouble here!” A Demon General roared loudly.

“It seems to be a Flood Dragon.”

Many members of the Demon Clan came out of their caves, their bodies full of surging energy, while those Barbarians crawled out of their tents, holding weapons, their eyes red. The rest of the Presented Scholars were also frightened, using the Courage to Write to forcefully wake up, rushing out without even putting on their clothes, and some even subconsciously recited the Yi River Song, summoning the shadow of Jing Ke.

Niu Shan, naked and carrying a big axe, ran over and stared with big bull’s eyes, “Your Majesty, what’s going on? Is someone trying to harm you? I’ll kill him!”

Fang Yun was helpless, he didn’t expect that dropping a bit of blood and applying some lacquer could cause such a commotion.

Fang Yun had to shout, “It’s nothing, it’s just thunder from the sky! Go back to sleep.”

The crowd looked at Fang Yun with suspicion, reluctant to go back to sleep.

Seeing that he couldn’t persuade them, Fang Yun didn’t bother, and walked over to the Courage to Write to take a closer look.

Not only the body of the zither, but even the seven strings had an extremely faint glow, as if they contained a special power.

“Is this the lacquer entering the strings?” Fang Yun asked.

“Of course!” Shi Tang looked at the Courage to Write with envy.

“What?” The crowd nearby all ran over. A few Presented Scholars even came barefoot.

“A Thunder Pattern Zither? You brushed the Thunderstone Lacquer on an Imperial Scholar’s Treasures of Literature zither? You… are simply wasting resources! If the zither masters of the world knew about this, they would surely spit blood and die of anger!” A Presented Scholar said with a bitter smile.

“Not just wasting resources! It’s simply outrageous!” Li Fanming laughed.

The big rabbit nodded vigorously on the side, not because it agreed with Li Fanming, but because it was scared by the dragon’s roar just now.

“It’s actually lacquer entering the strings, it seems a bit incredible, there won’t be more than three or five in a hundred years.” Han Shoulu said.

“What was that dragon’s roar just now?”

Shi Tang kept silent, the matter of the blood of the great sage was too exaggerated. If it were spread out, it would be enough to put Fang Yun directly on the Great Scholar’s hit list from the Demon Clan’s Hanlin hit list. And he might even rank in the top twenty!

Fang Yun entered a pretending to be stupid state, silently observing the new Courage to Write zither, ignoring the people’s chattering.

Those Demon Barbarians didn’t understand the way of the zither, and when they found out that there was really nothing wrong, they went to sleep one after another. But those Presented Scholars, because they had a little knowledge of the way of the zither, couldn’t sleep when they saw something new and interesting, and they all came to see the zither, exclaiming in admiration.

“Fang Yun, when you participate in the zither meeting in the future, don’t bring this zither out, otherwise I can’t guarantee that you can leave the zither meeting alive.” Li Fanming joked.

“I want to do it now! A Thunderstone can be exchanged for at least ten Imperial Scholar’s Treasures of Literature! If I had a Thunderstone, I would have all the mechanical beasts from Imperial Scholar to Hanlin.” Ma Xiong said.

“It’s too late to play the zither now, wait until tomorrow morning, you must play a song to listen to, don’t let us wake up in vain!”

“No way! We were woken up, how can we just let it go? We must play it now!”

“Those Demon Barbarians have gone to sleep, if you let him play now, wouldn’t it harm the Demon Barbarians and him!”

“If a zither player plays a song at night that makes people hate, then he is a failed zither player! Fang Yun, do you dare to play a song and make those Demon Barbarians not come to find you!”

Fang Yun laughed, “What if I play it?”

“If you play it, I will worship you as my mentor!” Jia Jing’an laughed.

“Unfortunately, I have too many disciples, I don’t lack disciples, change to something else.” Fang Yun said.

Jia Jing’an immediately looked at everyone and said, “Whoever doesn’t have a mentor, step forward. I don’t believe that Fang Yun can really play that kind of music. Even those who have mentors, come and recognize Fang Yun as your music teacher.”

Li Fanming looked at Fang Yun, who was not at all intimidated, and said, “Don’t underestimate Fang Yun, he might really be able to play it.”

However, Shi Tang laughed and said, “Don’t forget that this is the Thunderous Zither. Unless it is covered with a special literary treasure or obstructed by the power of the Courage to Write, once it starts to play, the sound will spread for a mile. This is also the reason why the Thunderous Zither is so powerful, it can greatly increase the range of the battle song. The new Thunderous Zither sound contains thunder, those Demon Barbarians won’t be able to sleep, it would be good if they don’t curse him, they might even come to beat him!”

“Haha, since the genius of the first family of music says so, it must be right! I’ll join in too, Fang Yun, if you dare to play, I will recognize you as my mentor. If you don’t dare to play, when we leave the Holy Land, go to the most expensive restaurant in the City of Confucius and treat us to a Flood Dragon feast!” Li Fanming said.

Fang Yun laughed and said, “You really have a big appetite, a Flood Dragon feast starts at a hundred thousand taels of silver. That’s not money I’m eating, it’s my blood!”

“What, you don’t dare?” Everyone started to tease him.

Fang Yun originally wanted to refuse and not play along with their antics, but suddenly he thought of a piece of music. He had already entered the first realm of music, and he could quickly adapt that simple piece of music into a zither piece. Although it needed careful refinement in the future, it could completely achieve the effect of not angering the Demon Barbarians in a short time. So he said, “Do you really want to bet with me? Whoever wants to participate, step forward.”

As a result, except for Xun Ye, everyone stepped forward together.

“We, the children of prominent families, always wait until we become Imperial Scholars to formally find a mentor. Because our literary position is not high enough to know our direction in the Path of the Saints, we can find a Great Scholar or even a Semi-Saint to be our mentor when we become Imperial Scholars. If you can really play a piece of music that the Demon Barbarians don’t get tired of listening to, you will definitely be a master of the fourth realm of music in the future. What’s wrong with us recognizing you as our mentor!”

“Yeah! So you agree?”

Everyone laughed and looked at Fang Yun.

Xun Ye, on the other hand, looked at these people with the eyes of someone looking at a madman, unable to understand the friendship these people had developed after fighting side by side.

“Alright! Give me a quarter of an hour!”

After Fang Yun finished speaking, he closed his eyes.

Everyone didn’t believe him at all, they were joking and laughing, even preparing to have a big meal at Fang Yun’s expense.

“We must eat the Flood Dragon tendon! I’ve eaten it before, it’s really an unparalleled delicacy, I still can’t forget the taste!”

“The neck meat of the Flood Dragon is also good, it’s just a bit expensive.”

“What’s there to be afraid of, Fang Yun will pay the bill. He can just close his eyes and pick something out of the Drinking Pearl of the River, that would be enough to pay the bill.”

“Then we might as well order the Flood Dragon whip!”

“You’re really ruthless. The Flood Dragon whip that we twenty people eat, at least ten thousand taels per person!”

“Can I have a twenty thousand taels Flood Dragon whip?”

“Hahaha……”

Everyone laughed and continued to chat.

Before long, someone shouted, “A quarter of an hour is up! Fang Yun, don’t pretend to be asleep. Get up!”

Everyone laughed and looked at Fang Yun.

Fang Yun still had his eyes closed, but he reached out and placed his hand on the strings of the zither, then gently plucked it.

“Buzz……”

The zither sound containing a trace of thunder instantly spread for a mile, countless times faster than the speed of ordinary zither sounds.

Many people were startled because the sound was too loud, and there were also some sounds of turning over from the Demon Barbarians’ dwellings.

Fang Yun continued to play.

The melody of the zither was extremely simple. There were a few rough spots, and because the sound was too loud, many of the Demon Barbarians who wanted to sleep became irritated.

Many Demon Barbarians endured for a moment, and when they heard that the zither sound did not stop, they were about to get up. But suddenly, all the Demon Barbarians were stunned, because the zither sound became incredibly soft, containing a warmth that only a mother could give, and they couldn’t help but relax.

The melodious zither music continued to float above the village, the expressions of the many Demon Barbarians softened, and finally they lay down with a smile, closed their eyes, and each Demon Barbarian thanked the person playing the zither in their hearts, feeling that this was the most wonderful sound in the world.

Even the corners of the mouths of those Demon Barbarians who were already asleep floated up with a smile, as if they were having a beautiful dream.

All the Presented Scholars couldn’t help but yawn, and a few even stretched lazily. Everyone felt their eyelids heavy and really wanted to sleep.

Suddenly, Shi Tang said, “Quickly use the Courage to Write to resist! Fang Yun has actually created a never-before-seen lullaby battle song! It’s comparable to the Sleep Bird in the Demon Realm!”

All the Presented Scholars immediately lightly shook their Courage to Write to resist Fang Yun’s power.

“Fang Yun, alright, we admit defeat, what is this piece called?”

“Master! Please stop!”

Fang Yun finally stopped, looked at everyone, and smiled, “This is called a Lullaby.”

But in his heart, he said, this is called a Cradle Song.

The melody of the Cradle Song is short and beautiful, soft and sweet, it’s almost constantly repeating, so Fang Yun used the Heavenly Book to adapt it into a zither piece within a quarter of an hour. Although there were flaws, under the effect of his talent and the literary treasure zither, it was enough to make everyone drowsy.

“Alas, Master, please accept your disciple’s bow!” Shi Tang knelt down on one knee helplessly.

Seeing someone kneel down, the others could only reluctantly follow suit.

“Please accept your disciple’s bow!” (To be continued.)

PS: Some people say they can’t find the four words “Confucius’s Three Achievements”. This is my own summary, but the events are all true, I didn’t make them up. Keywords: Cockfighting Change, Middle Capital Butcher and Grand Marshal, Jia Valley Alliance, Fall of the Three Capitals.