Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, the giant Whale King, as tall as two stories, gave Fang Yun a simple smile and said, “Fang Maocai, I’m late, sorry.” After speaking, he lifted his foot and stomped down hard on the head of the dragon-man youth.

“Splat!”

The Whale King stomped the dragon-man youth to death, his simple smile unchanged.

The scene was in chaos, and everyone hurriedly retreated, still unable to believe what had just happened.

Yang Yuhuan instinctively hid behind Fang Yun.

Fang Yun stared blankly at the Whale King’s incredibly robust body, still not understanding what was going on. He thought to himself that he had learned of the brutality of the Demon Clan today, killing a dragon-man as easily as stepping on an ant.

The little fox was even more confused than Fang Yun. It was ready to scratch the bad guy to death with its little paws, but why was the bad guy killed before it could even make a move?

Fang Yun asked in confusion, “I don’t seem to know Lord Whale King.”

“Now you do. I heard you taught the Qingjiang Dragon King a lesson? Good job, I’ve wanted to beat him up for a long time!” The smile on the Whale King’s face never changed.

Fang Yun guessed that it probably had something to do with the Emperor’s Poem he had written, so he politely said, “Thank you, Whale King.”

The Whale King laughed and said, “I help you kill people and demons, and you give me the original manuscript of ‘The Immortal at the Magpie Bridge’, how about it?”

Fang Yun looked up at the Whale King, thought for a moment, looked around, and asked in a low voice, “What’s the price for killing the Left Chancellor?”

The Whale King said, “The Left Chancellor has the Treasures of Literature of the Great Scholar, and the true text of the Great Scholar, I can’t kill him. But if you give me another Nation-securing Poem, I’ll find my big brother, and we’ll kill him together.” After speaking, he crossed his arms and put on a proud look.

“I was just asking about the price, don’t misunderstand.” Fang Yun smiled.

“No problem, as long as you have good poems and literature, you can come to me to kill people anytime! I’m very good at it! Well, I’m leaving first, come to the Dragon Pavilion and call my name, I can appear anytime, except when I’m sleeping.” The Whale King was still smiling simply.

“When do you usually sleep?”

“From July 7th to August 15th.”

The people around didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The Whale King’s body disappeared, and with him disappeared the dragon-man youth, while the remaining few dragon-men were so scared that they sat paralyzed on the ground. They didn’t dare to say a word, for they knew best how terrifying the blood and energy on the Whale King was, like a knife hanging over their necks.

The dragon-men remained silent, watching Fang Yun leave in silence. The fear in their eyes deepened, for what it meant that the Whale King, so powerful, treated Fang Yun in such a way was self-evident.

“Go back, tell all the dragon-men, never to provoke Fang Yun Fang Maocai. Including his followers!”

The Dragon Pavilion returned to normal, but two armored ox carts outside the east gate of Dayuan Prefecture were somewhat abnormal.

The two armored ox carts gradually slowed down, and finally, the oxen pulling the carts collapsed, alarming the people in the carts.

“What’s going on?”

“Something’s wrong, why can’t I hear the sound of rain hitting the cart canopy? Oh, we’re probably at the gate of Yuhai City.”

“Have we been stopped by the soldiers?”

“Don’t be afraid, Fang Yun can’t do anything to us!”

“We must avenge Zicheng!”

“Cry quickly, don’t let others see!”

“Zicheng, you died so miserably!”

“Fang Yun, please, don’t kill us, we, the Liu family, were wrong! We’ll give you whatever you want, just don’t kill us all!”

“Fang Banxiang, you forced Zicheng to death, don’t force our five-year-old child to death!”

The Liu family, dressed in mourning clothes, wailed as they got out of the armored ox carts. However, with each person who went out, one less person was crying. In the end, more than a dozen people from the Liu family were staring dumbfounded at the familiar city gate and the familiar words “Dayuan Prefecture”.

“Ghost…ghost! We were clearly going from Dayuan Prefecture to Yuhai City, and we’ve been on the road for a day and a night. We were clearly only a quarter of an hour away from Yuhai City, so how did we end up back in Dayuan Prefecture?”

“Look at the sky, it’s not afternoon now, it’s late at night!”

Liu Zizhi didn’t say a word. There was a trace of panic in his eyes. He secretly looked around, but the others were like a pot of boiling water, constantly discussing.

“How is this possible! We were clearly going to Yuhai City, so how did we end up back in Dayuan Prefecture?”

“Do you remember what we did?”

“Let me think, I only remember what we said when we were close to Yuhai City, and then I forgot everything we said after that!”

“I can’t remember anything either!”

“Mom, aren’t we going to Yuhai? Why haven’t we left yet?”

“You…you don’t remember that we’ve already set off?”

“I don’t remember!”

Before long, all the memories of the Liu family were in chaos. Everyone was confused, except for the Presented Scholar Liu Zizhi, who remained clear-headed.

“What’s going on?”

“Help, are we possessed by a demon?”

Liu Zizhi finally couldn’t help it and shouted, “Shut up! All of you, shut up!”

Everyone looked at Liu Zizhi’s almost twisted face, all scared. Liu Zizhi was the top scholar of a state, the first among the Presented Scholars, and had been taught by the Left Chancellor in the capital, and had long reached the state of not showing his emotions. But why did he suddenly become like this?

“Zizhi, what’s wrong? Are we still going to Yuhai City?”

Liu Zizhi said in a low voice, “We, I’m afraid we’ve been played by a Sage.”

The people of the Liu family looked at Liu Zizhi as if he were a madman.

“Zizhi, are you…are you okay?”

Liu Zizhi slowly said, “You’ve forgotten, but I remember. We were clearly only a quarter of an hour away from Yuhai City, but now, we’ve inexplicably returned to Dayuan Prefecture, and the armored oxen were almost worked to death. The one who could make us unknowingly return to Dayuan Prefecture is at least a Literature Master, or even possibly a Semi-Saint!”

Every member of the Liu family was extremely panicked.

“Could it be…did his mysterious teacher make a move?”Liu Zizhi nodded.

“So…what should we do?”

“You all go home, I need some time alone.”

After saying this, Liu Zizhi slowly distanced himself from the crowd, his mind racing with thoughts. Before long, he clenched his fists tightly.

“Your mentor is indeed a Semi-Saint! In this case, the Left Chancellor is bound to lose, and my Liu family will never have a chance to turn things around! Even if I become the top scholar of Jing Kingdom, a single word from a Semi-Saint could ruin me! Fang Yun, you’re ruthless! But, I still have a chance! The Holy Land will be my last opportunity! You will definitely enter the Holy Land, and I, I will definitely kill you!”

Inside the Dragon Attracting Pavilion.

Fang Yun and Yang Yuhuan gently consoled the others, while Xiao Ying sobbed in Fang Da Niu’s arms. Fang Da Niu looked at Fang Yun with gratitude.

Once Xiao Ying had calmed down, Fang Yun and Yang Yuhuan left, leaving the young couple alone.

When the two returned to the music club, the class had already ended, and Xu Sanjue had left. The “Blood Mosquito” zither had also disappeared. Fang Yun secretly regretted this, as he was very curious to see the performance of the Blood Mosquito, which must have been incredibly unique.

There were already over three hundred people here, all discussing the buying and selling of zithers.

All the Treasures of Literature zithers were categorized. Fang Yun didn’t look at the Presented Scholar Treasures of Literature zithers, because his talent was close to ten inches, and he would soon become a Presented Scholar. Buying a Presented Scholar Treasure of Literature zither now would be a waste. He had to buy an Imperial Scholar Treasure of Literature zither.

Moreover, the Treasures of Literature zithers were different from ordinary Treasures of Literature. For example, an Accomplished Scholar couldn’t unleash the power of an Imperial Scholar’s Treasure of Literature, but if an Accomplished Scholar’s zither path could reach the first realm, they could unleash part of the power of an Imperial Scholar’s Treasure of Literature zither.

Fang Yun came to the place where the Imperial Scholar Treasures of Literature zithers were displayed. There were a total of ten, all labeled with the zither maker, era, and weight. Some even listed the previous owners and had appraisal documents from zither masters.

Since anyone could try out the zithers, Fang Yun tested the sound of each one. The bodies of these zithers were not made of ordinary paulownia or fir, but were made from trees from the Demon Realm. The sound and the power of the war songs played on them were different.

The zither strings were not ordinary silk, but were all made from materials from the Demon Clan. The best recognized zither strings were made from dragon tendons. A single dragon tendon was divided into seven strands to make zither strings. The war songs played on them were very powerful. The strings of famous and holy zithers were made from dragon or dragon-like tendons.

Most of these Imperial Scholar Treasures of Literature zithers used unique silk or spider silk from the Demon Clan, which could enhance the power of war songs.

Fang Yun used the method of fracture pattern identification to appraise all the Treasures of Literature zithers and found a problem. The time on the appraisal documents was much older than the era he had appraised.

Looking at these Treasures of Literature zithers, Fang Yun had a thought and began to appreciate all the zithers. After appreciating all of them, he discovered something.

“It turns out that as the literary rank of the Treasures of Literature zither increases, there is an error in the fracture pattern! For example, the Presented Scholar Treasure of Literature zither I appraised earlier, according to the fracture pattern, was made at most two hundred years ago, but Xu Sanjue said that the actual production time of that zither was two hundred and twenty years ago!”

“Because the power of talent protects the Treasures of Literature zither, if they are placed for a hundred years, the fracture pattern of the Treasures of Literature zither will be less than that of a non-Treasures of Literature zither. However, the proportion of the error is the same. I need to remember this to avoid mistakes in the future.”

In the end, Fang Yun chose an Imperial Scholar Treasure of Literature zither and found the owner of the Treasure of Literature, who was an Accomplished Scholar in his thirties.

“Are you Hong Cheng, the zither friend?” Fang Yun asked with a smile.

“Yes, I am.” The Accomplished Scholar stood up.

“I want to ask if you would like to exchange your zither for something other than four Presented Scholar Treasures of Literature? I have a dragon horn from a Dragon King. How about I cut off a part of it to exchange with you?”

Hong, the Accomplished Scholar, shook his head and said, “I only exchange for four Presented Scholar Treasures of Literature, and they must be the four types I specify. Unless you give me a whole Dragon King horn, I won’t exchange.”

Fang Yun laughed, “A complete Dragon King horn can be exchanged for at least one Hanlin Scholar Treasure of Literature zither, or almost three Imperial Scholar Treasures of Literature zithers. I can’t possibly make that exchange.”

“Ah… I’m sorry, I was too greedy, but I have no choice.” Hong, the Accomplished Scholar, looked distressed.

Fang Yun said, “How about this, you wait here for me. I’ll go find the four types of Presented Scholar Treasures of Literature. Once I find them, I’ll come back and exchange with you. If I can’t find them, I’ll come back and tell you.”

“Okay. I’ll wait for you for two hours! If you don’t come back within two hours, consider it as nothing happened.”

“Okay!”

Fang Yun immediately recalled the map, then he and Yang Yuhuan went to the Treasure of Literature Street inside the Dragon Attracting Pavilion. There were many large shops on that street, each one a well-established brand on the Holy Origin Mainland, almost all of them owned by the Semi-Saint Prominent Families.

(To be continued.)