What's more, even so, due to the special nature of the Sky-shattering Sword Technique, their current strength is not low in the martial arts world.
If there is no one to restrain them, it is difficult to say that they will not cause trouble outside.
Therefore, Fang Xiaoyue had to keep Zhang Yuanming behind. After these men had started to become real Tao soldiers and he had officially settled down in the capital, he would let Zhang Yuanming take them back to the capital.
But even so, Fang Xiaoyue was still not alone this time.
Before leaving, Mrs. Fang and Zhang planned to let him take his two maids to Beijing.
In my mother's words, if you go to Beijing alone, my mother won't worry. It would be better if there are two more people to take care of you.
But Fang Xiaoyue was not willing. He could see that Fang Zhang wanted him to grow up early and help the Fang family flourish.
But the problem is that the two maids are too young, one is ten years old and the other is twelve years old. This is a complete jail sentence.
After all the hard work, Fang Xiaoyue reduced the number of maids to one.
He took the maid named Cheng Xiaoyue, who was twelve years old.
His mother's surname is Fang, and she and Fang Xiaoyue have the same great ancestor, which means that her mother and Fang Xiaoyue's father are still relatives in the fifth server, but Fang Xiaoyue and Cheng Xiaoyue are from the fifth server.
However, this Cheng Xiaoyue, whom Fang Xiaoyue had met several times when she was at home, was a relatively quiet girl. Her father had attended a private school and passed the boyhood examination, so Cheng Xiaoyue also learned a lot of writing when she was at home. Although she could not recite poems or write poems correctly,
But at least he's not illiterate.
Also considering that she had to go out with a little girl, Fang Xiaoyue finally added another person.
He picked a 14-year-old boy from Zhang Yuanming to follow him.
This boy's name is Fang Shangou, and he has a good name. Although he is a distant relative, his father also calls Fang Xiaoyue uncle.
Compared to Cheng Xiaoyue, Fang Shangou is much more naughty and lively.
This time when I went out, I still took the carriage given by Qian Laipeng.
The last time Fang Xiaoyue took a boat to Beijing to take the exam, she left the carriage alone. As a result, Qian Laipeng sent the carriage back this time.
And the coachman also officially settled in the Fang family.
After sending Fang Xiaoyue and the others to the dock in the provincial capital this time, the carriage will rush back to Fang's house for Fang's mother to use.
Since it was already the seventh day of the first lunar month and time was tight, Fang Xiaoyue left Kuangluo County without much fanfare.
On the way to the provincial capital, Fang Xiaoyue roughly sorted out his growth during this period.
With this return to his hometown, Fang Xiaoyue had more social activities and spent much less time on cultivation. However, his Four Books and Five Classics were still upgraded to level 20, and his calligraphy was also upgraded to level 20 by two levels in a row.
At this point, his Four Books and Five Classics, calligraphy, poetry, and Four Books have all reached level 20, which is currently at full level.
However, in this world, level 20 is not the full level and can still be improved.
But that alone was enough. After all, after he was admitted to the manor, whether it was the Four Books, Five Classics or Four Books, it was useless in his opinion.
However, calligraphy still has some uses.
In addition, he raised the Wuqu Jianjue from level 11 to level 13, and the Wuqu Jianjue from level 10 to level 13, thus tying the Wuqu Jianjue.
This is not surprising. The two practices are complementary to each other. Wuqu Zhuang can draw Wuqu Xing's star power into the body and strengthen the body, while Wuqu Jianjue can mobilize star power to kill enemies and can also feed back to strengthen the body.
When she arrived at the provincial capital, Fang Xiaoyue did not stop, but directly booked a boat through the boat company.
Now Fang Xiaoyue can no longer take a boat like before.
Officials like him who have not yet taken office must also pay attention to some decency.
Passenger ships like those before were actually converted from sand ships. They looked very big, but the cabins were small, and a group of people were crammed into one ship. Whether it was hygienic or other aspects, it was unsatisfactory.
This time Fang Xiaoyueding's ship was smaller than the sand ship, but it was a specialized passenger ship. In addition to the residence of the shipowner and his family, there were only three spacious cabins on board.
Fang Xiaoyue and the other three fit into one room.
After boarding the ship, Cheng Xiaoyue got busy, cleaning the three cabins one by one, taking out towels from her luggage, fetching hot water, and waiting for the master to clean the dust.
Fang Xiaoyue asked her to rest, but she refused.
In her words, her current life is too happy. She can have a full stomach and her master also bought her new clothes. She must cherish her blessings and do more things, otherwise one day her master will feel that she is not diligent and will be miserable.
.
Her words made Fang Xiaoyue dumbfounded, but it made Fang Shangou feel a sense of crisis, and he became much more diligent when he went to the bow of the ship to practice.
There are three members of the family of the boat boss. The boat boss looks so old that he is in his fifties, but when asked about his age, he is only in his thirties. His wife looks ordinary and doesn’t talk much. There is also a ten-year-old girl who is very diligent with her hands and feet.
Soon after boarding the ship, Cheng Xiaoyue was talking and laughing with the ship boss's daughter.
Due to Fang Xiaoyue's generosity, she took twenty taels of silver just for setting up the ship. In addition, she also had an extra ten taels of silver for food and drink on the road. Therefore, after the guests boarded the ship, the boss of the ship hurriedly took his wife to the vegetable market.
After specially purchasing chicken, duck and other ingredients, the ship set out from the port.
Since the journey from the provincial capital to the capital is basically along the river, the boat owner, in addition to occasionally steering the boat to adjust the direction of the boat, mostly fishes with a fishing rod at the stern of the boat.
Fang Xiaoyue was sitting on the bow of the boat, flipping through a book, and occasionally giving guidance to Fang Shangou who was practicing the Sky-shattering Sword Technique next to him.
He got this book from Qian Laipeng.
The title of the book is Guan Ya Lu.
This book is actually a collection of various situations involving Beijing officials and even local officials from Di Bao and other sources.
To put it bluntly, this is equivalent to books such as promotion charts.
If you want to be a good official these days, it is undoubtedly necessary to be familiar with the situations of all the adults.
For example, if Mr. So-and-so comes to Kuangluo County on an errand, and you don’t even know where he is from, you might run into problems.
For officials working in the capital, official records are an indispensable reference book.
If there is demand, there will be sales, and if there is sales, there will be money to be made. Therefore, bookstores in many places will find people to edit such books. The more accurate the information in the book, the more people will undoubtedly buy it.
After all, it is not just officials who will buy this book, many businessmen and even officials will buy this book.
Fang Xiaoyue's official records were published by Taixiang Bookstore in the provincial capital.
There is no doubt that in the ever-changing officialdom, the information and reality in the official records published more than a year ago must have changed a lot.
But for Fang Xiaoyue, who has just entered the officialdom, this official government record is still an important reference book for understanding officialdom information.
At least through this official office record, he learned a lot about the officials, nobles and even some well-known eunuchs in the six departments of the imperial court.
Because Fang Xiaoyue specially added 10 taels of silver, the food on the ship was still good.
There is meat every meal, chicken or duck every day, and fish is indispensable on the boat.
The boat owner only catches a few fish every day and calls it a day. He knows how to develop sustainably.
At first, after the meal was prepared, the shipowner's family refused to come to the deck to eat with Fang Xiaoyue and others.
After all, the food at Fang Xiaoyue's side was so good that the boat owner felt it was a sin to eat it.
Fish is usually very good at the boat owner's house. As for chickens and ducks, they are rarely eaten because they cost extra money.
Fang Xiaoyue did not force this, but asked the ship owner's wife to keep some for herself after each meal, so that the ship owner's daughter could get more nutrition.
The ship owner's daughter was really too thin. The ten-year-old child looked much younger than the twelve-year-old Cheng Xiaoyue.
Naturally, the ship owner's wife couldn't refuse Fang Xiaoyue's words.
In three days, the ship had covered most of the journey, and it looked like it would arrive at the dock in the capital in two days.
But that night, something happened.
After dinner, Fang Xiaoyue felt that something was not right around her.
After thinking for a while, he found that there were no birds chirping around the ship.
Because during dinner time, the boat was parked in the reed swamps to rest instead of drifting with the current. It was safer to eat on the boat and everyone could rest better at night.
After dinner, the boat owner's wife would throw the food scraps, kitchen scraps and other garbage into the water.
And every time this garbage is thrown away, it attracts many waterbirds.
This is not surprising, because people do not eat these garbage, but it is a great temptation for fish in the water, and it is easy to attract fish schools, and the water birds that live in the reeds are also very smart.
After discovering this, they will fly to catch fish to eat.
But today was very strange. Fang Xiaoyue didn't even notice a water bird, and it felt like a mute button had been pressed around her.
After Fang Xiaoyue felt something was not right, she immediately called the ship owner and told her what she had discovered.
As soon as he said these words, the boat owner's face changed drastically, and his legs seemed to suddenly become trembling. He hurriedly called his wife and daughter, and invited Fang Xiaoyue and others to go ashore.
Fang Xiaoyue also had some guesses about the behavior of the ship owner. After landing, dozens of meters away from the shore, the ship owner breathed a sigh of relief and said his guess: "Mr. Fang, I guess we
Either he was targeted by the water ghost or the water demon."
When he said this, before Fang Xiaoyue could do anything, Cheng Xiaoyue was so frightened that she jumped up behind Fang Xiaoyue, shrank her whole body into a ball, and grabbed Fang Xiaoyue's arm with both hands, as if there were monsters and ghosts around.
After Fang Xiaoyue stretched out her hand to comfort Cheng Xiaoyue, Cheng Xiaoyue felt better, but Fang Shangou became a little excited. He was grabbing the thick-backed knife made of fine iron and searching the reeds, as if he wanted to catch a ghost immediately.
Come out and try the knife's edge.
Afterwards, Fang Xiaoyue asked the ship owner and probably figured out the situation.
It turns out that there were legends about water ghosts and water monsters on this river.
Water ghosts are naturally the ghosts that people turn into after they drown. They will wander underwater late at night and take the opportunity to drag people into the water to replace their own fate.
Water monsters are monsters that are transformed from aquatic animals such as fish, shrimps, crabs, etc.
These monsters are not good monsters either. They often like to drag people into the water and devour them.
Regardless of whether it is a water ghost or a water demon, the water birds will undoubtedly not dare to approach the places where they appear.
That's why the shipowner made such a judgment.
In fact, Fang Xiaoyue also felt a trace of evil spirit mixed with water vapor filling the air at this time.
The boat owner's judgment was very accurate. There were indeed water monsters in the river.
And this water demon is not considered strong, just a small demon.
Fang Xiaoyue was ready to take this opportunity to practice Fang Shangou.
Although Fang Shangou has not yet mastered the Sky-shaking Sword Technique, it is not a bad thing to get in touch with monsters in advance. You must know that this Sky-shaking Sword Technique is originally a quick Taoist weapon technique.
In less than a week, Fang Shangou's strength can be regarded as an unrivaled master in the world.
It may not be able to fight against the water demon, but at least it will not be easily killed by the water demon. Doesn't it have itself behind it?
But if you stay like this, the water demon will definitely not appear.
After thinking about it, Fang Xiaoyue asked Cheng Xiaoyue and the boat owner's family to stay on the shore, and she and Fang Shangou got on the boat together.
He took out a turkey from the chicken coop at the stern of the boat, and found an iron hook and rope for hanging bacon in the kitchen.
Tie it up with an iron hook and a rope, cut the live chicken with a knife, hang it on the iron hook, and throw it into the water at the stern of the boat.
Seeing what Fang Xiaoyue did, Fang Shangou, who was already a little nervous, suddenly became even more nervous.
He also understood that Fang Xiaoyue was planning to catch the water monster.
So he subconsciously tightened his grip on the thick knife carried behind his back.
Fang Xiaoyue specially made a batch of thick-backed knives for them.
It is not necessary to use a thick-backed knife to perform the Shocking Sword Art, but the advantage of using a thick-backed knife is that it weighs more than fifteen kilograms. When practicing the Shocking Sword Art, it is easier to improve and temper their physical body.
.
Of course, the heavier the knife, the greater the lethality when using the Sky-shattering Knife Technique.
For example, Zhang Yuanming, who has mastered the Sky-shattering Sword Art, uses a thick-backed sword that weighs thirty kilograms.
As their cultivation level continued to rise, their thick-backed swords became heavier.
After the live chicken entered the water, as it flapped its wings vigorously on the water, the blood from its wounds quickly spread outward along the river water.
Not long after, Fang Xiaoyue's sharp vision used the moonlight to see a black shadow passing through the water nearby.
Of course, he was the only one who saw it. Fang Shangou's eyesight hadn't been refined to that level yet, so he didn't see anything.
The black shadow was very large, more than two meters long, and it seemed to be attracted by the blood of the live chicken.
Chickens can't swim, so they flopped on the water for a while and then quickly sank into the water.
But at this moment, the black shadow could no longer hold back and rushed towards the live chicken sinking into the water.
After that, Fang Xiaoyue felt that the rope in her hand suddenly produced a force that jumped out.
bingo!
Needless to say, Fang Xiaoyue immediately grabbed the rope tightly, and her legs suddenly exerted force, like two suction cups, and they were tightly sucked to the ship's board.