Changxiu Street is located in Nanguo of Xingwang Mansion, more than a hundred feet away from the moat of the inner city. Different from the streets lined with shops in Nanguo City, Changxiu Street is lined with courtyards with Jiangnan garden style on both sides. The main seat of the 'Recruiting Hall'
It is located in the middle of the east side of Changxiu Street.
At 3:30 p.m. on the tenth day of the fifth lunar month, Luo Xiaoyao, who had already signed up for the Hall on the ninth day of the lunar month, came to the "Recruitment Hall" with Arrow Guard Zhanwu as scheduled, and followed the servant at the door to lead the way to the atrium hall.
This hall is more than six feet long and three feet deep. I think it is because of the large number of people to be recruited. The hall is arranged like a meeting hall. There is a high chair in the middle of the east side, and five rows of embroidered cloths are placed on the north and south sides.
There are four pier chairs in each row.
There were already a dozen people sitting in the lower hall, three of whom were the arrow guards of Tongbao Pavilion. After Luo Xiaoyao and Zhan Wu took their seats, seven more energetic young people came one after another. To count them carefully,
There were twenty-two people in total.
As the time of application was approaching, a man in his late forties wearing light blue uniforms walked into the hall. He walked to the center and stood in front of the main seat. He glanced at the people in the hall, smiled slightly, cupped his fists and said in salute: "My lord Zhao
Han, I am fortunate enough to be appreciated by General Xu, the prison gatekeeper. As the head of the talent recruitment hall, I am extremely honored to be able to offer my modest help to all the talented people who have entered the prison gate today."
After a pause, Zhao Han sat down on the main seat. Zhao Han said with a smile: "The sage said that when heaven is about to assign a great responsibility to a person, he must first strain his mind, strain his muscles and bones, starve his body and skin, and deplete his body.
The behavior of the people disturbs what they do, so they move their minds and forbearance to gain what they cannot do."
"For those of us who practice martial arts, to quote the words of the saints, the muscles and bones of all of you are overworked, and the body and skin are tired... Zhao, who is only at a small level of spiritual consciousness, dare not speak loudly to teach. But the strong will of a martial artist is not
It’s just that martial arts techniques can be practiced, and they need to be understood through ordinary experiences.”
"All of you are talented people who have learned from famous schools. If you know how to fight with others, even if your cultivation level is a half or two, if you can deal with dangers without being alarmed and have a clear mind, you will be much more likely to win."
The level of martial arts cultivation is not the key to victory or defeat. Although a master's victory or defeat can happen in an instant, it is precisely this number of seconds. If one can stay calm and respond calmly in the face of danger, it is also an opportunity to turn defeat into victory. There are extraordinary people in the world.
The characters who fight with the weak defeating the strong are all because they have a clear mind during the fight, and can advance and retreat in an instant, and avert danger.
Everyone felt that what Zhao Han said was reasonable, and they all nodded secretly. Then they heard Zhao Han say: "As the sage said, actions will disturb what you do, so you can use your heart and forbearance to improve what you can't do. This is the purpose of recruiting talented people in our hall."
Here...therefore, what is assessed during recruitment is the determination of the talents."
"The so-called wine and wealth, according to Zhao, wine shapes the heart, color shapes the soul, wealth shapes the spirit, and Qi shapes the soul. If the heart is calm, the soul will be strong, if the spirit is prosperous, the soul will be strong. But I think there are many people in the world who regard money as such.
The so-called hero of dung and wealth may be Zhao's humble opinion... Therefore, the assessment of concentration is based on wine and sex."
"However, you are those who have cultivated in the Gu Yuan Realm and the Return to True Realm. If you use your internal strength to dissolve the alcohol's power, you will not get drunk after a thousand cups. Therefore, when tasting wine, please do not use martial arts cultivation Qi to dissolve the alcohol's power. Anyone who violates this will be automatically cancelled.
His qualifications for participation and his behavior will be announced outside the museum. I hope you will love and respect yourself."
Once the Qi machine is used to dissolve the alcoholic power, the wine will be forced out of the body, and the clothes worn will definitely be wet. If the wine is forced into the ground, it will be discovered by others. Everyone thinks it is disdainful to do it. After hearing this
They all shook their heads and chuckled.
"There are three kinds of wine that each of you drank, totaling fifteen kilograms. Of course, it is impossible to make the talented people here drunk with these fifteen kilograms, but what is important is not your drinking capacity, but your concentration. That's why
While you are tasting wine, I will sit with a beautiful woman and perform music and dance for you to enjoy."
"At that time, Mr. Zhao will make an evaluation of the level of concentration in the same manner as everyone is tasting wine and listening to music. He will use his own exercises to resist the sexual nature of beauty and alcohol... As long as it does not affect others, it does not count.
If you break any rules, such as reciting Buddhist scriptures, remember to keep your voice down..."
Everyone laughed when they heard this, and Zhao Han smiled slightly, "If you have no objections, please come and sit down at Yingchun Pavilion..."
"Mr. Zhao, I have a question to ask..." said a young man in white clothes sitting in the second seat in the front row on the south side.
"Master Li, please speak..."
"Excuse me, is Director Zhao the only one to evaluate our determination?" Mr. Li looked around at everyone, "I'm sorry to be disrespectful, but only three people will be selected this time, but if there are three candidates who are candidates for the exam, they are the director's choice..."
Before Mr. Li finished speaking, Zhao Han laughed and said, "The only person in our library who is making the assessment this time is Zhao, but all the talented people are also discerning people. Where Mr. Li is suspicious, wait for the wine."
You will see the result after the song ends."
If Luo Xiaoyao didn't know the real purpose of selecting talents, judging from Zhao Han's words and deeds, he would think that he was not a man who engaged in corruption for personal gain. He heard his words "you will know after the wine is dry and the song is over", but he guessed that the drunkenness was serious.
Generally speaking, I couldn't help but smile bitterly.
After hearing this, Mr. Li looked around again, but when he saw the eagerness on everyone's faces, they didn't care about his suspicions, so he shook his head, cupped his hands and said, "I'm sorry."
"Then you all will follow Zhao..." Zhao Han stood up and walked out of the hall. When everyone saw this, they also left their seats to follow.
After walking through the corridor and exiting the hall, they saw a cave in the back garden. Pavilions, pavilions and pavilions were scattered among the green plants and flowers. Following the guidance of Zhao Han, everyone set foot on the bluestone path in the garden and headed towards a bamboo forest on the south side.
Walking through the bamboo forest, you can see a large artificial lake near the southern courtyard wall, and a water pavilion built on the north side of the water. Unlike ordinary water pavilions with open terraces, this water pavilion has two-thirds of the towering columns framed on the lake.
, surrounded by walls and windows.
Walking in from the middle door on the north side, you will see a piano case about three feet away from the window facing the window. There is a guqin on the table. Beside the piano table, two maids wearing tulle and slightly exposed shoulders are sitting on their knees.
When everyone was marching, he stood up and bowed to salute, then he squatted down and lit the sandalwood in the incense burner next to the piano table.
There are four rows of low desks on the east and west sides, presumably to accommodate the number of candidates. Except for the two rows at the back, there are three desks in each row. Each low desk is separated by three feet on the left and right sides.
Zhao Han walked to a two-foot-wide space in the middle, glanced at everyone, and said: "There is a piece of paper on the table, with the names of all the talented people written on it. Please take a seat according to your first name."
After hearing the words, everyone looked around and saw a palm-sized piece of Cambodian paper placed on each low table. They followed the instructions and walked to the table to look at it. They found the table with their names written on it and sat down.
Luo Xiaoyao, who was sitting in the middle of the second row on the east side, looked at the empty cushions beside him and remembered Zhao Han's words about being accompanied by a beautiful woman, and he smiled bitterly in his heart.
When Zhao Han saw everyone sitting down, he coughed slightly, cleared his throat, and said: "The so-called wine can mess up the nature, it means that people's nature can be understood. If there are no distracting thoughts in the heart, there will be no need to speak the truth after drinking or use wine to drown sorrows.
The theory of using wine to commit murder is because people who drink wine use wine to nourish their Qi, their nature and even their health.”
"But everyone in the world wants something, and sometimes they don't get what they ask for, or they don't get enough, but they feel sad and resentful. This wine has become some people's so-called confidant. Little did they know that before the wine was in their arms, the inner demons were already born... Zhao
If you are not talented, I will use this humble opinion as a warning and hope you can encourage yourself."
After a pause of words, he clapped his hands three times, and then he saw more than a dozen well-dressed men marching with wine jars in their hands. They went back and forth twice to place the wine on each table. Then they saw a group of well-dressed men walking back and forth.
Beautiful women in green breast-length skirts, covered with tulle, with their shoulders and back exposed, filed in.
He walked in front of everyone one by one, put down the silver wine pot and wine cup in his hand, then bowed and bowed, then knelt down on the empty cushion beside everyone.
This short desk was three feet long. One person found it wide, but the two found it too narrow. Apart from Xiao Muyun, Luo Xiaoyao had never sat so close to a woman before, but he felt that the woman next to him was shoulder-to-shoulder close, and her body fragrance was refreshing.
His heart was pounding for a moment. But when he saw Zhao Han looking at everyone with half-smiling eyes, Luo Xiaoyao remembered his so-called Qianjian warning just now, secretly feeling ashamed, his mind shivered, and he calmed down.
"The fine wine on your table comes from Huadiao brewed by the Han family in the south of the Yangtze River. This wine has always been favored by the royal families of the Southern Tang and Wuyue. It has a soft nature and a sweet aftertaste. It can be enjoyed with steamed crabs and fish.
Actually..."
As soon as Zhao Han finished speaking, eight maids came in with three-layer food boxes. They walked separately to the north passage of each row of tables and stopped. They put down the food boxes and squatted down to open them. In an instant, they were placed on each table.
One portion of steamed sea crab and one portion of steamed sea fish.
At this time, the women in green clothes who were sitting with them were unsealing the wine and pouring it into the jug. However, they were holding the five-pound wine jar with a calm demeanor. Without checking their Qi, it could be seen that they were all practicing martial arts.
people.
"This wine weighs five kilograms. I hope you will drink it all in one stick of incense..." Zhao Han paused for a moment, then walked to the piano table and sat down cross-legged, smiling at the surprised people.
, "Zhao knows a little about the music of the piano. Let me play a piece first to relieve your worries."
After a pause of words, I saw him first flicking the strings with his right hand, and a sound like the gentle flow of spring water floated by. Then he moved his hands together, and when his fingers were plucking and pressing, a lonely and sad string sound came out.
"The long river flows slowly to Wuji, and hundreds of generations can sigh.
In the autumn wind, white dew stains people's clothes, and their strong hearts fade and lose their color..."
At this time, a woman's singing voice came from nowhere, singing along with the mournful strings.
The women sitting next to everyone all smiled at the sound, which made people feel affectionate. The woman sitting next to Luo Xiaoyao looked like she was sharing the same sorrow as you, with sad eyes she raised her cup and handed the wine to him.
When it reached his lips, Luo Xiaoyao was now in a calm state of mind, so he was not disturbed. He smiled bitterly to himself, calmly raised his hand to take the wine cup, raised his head and drank it down.
In Meng Jiao's "Going Out" poem, the helplessness of not being able to find talent, and the sadness of being separated from the beloved woman are conveyed through the music and singing, but it makes people feel emotional and melancholy.
Except for Luo Xiaoyao and the other five who had their own plans, the rest of the people who came to take the exam were rushing to join the officialdom. They were also young men. Although they were not married, they all had people they secretly admired in their hearts.
Coupled with the sad look on the face of the woman sitting next to him, hearing this made some people who were taking the exam look melancholy, and they drank one glass after another with deep words.
"Nanshan Mountain is full of white rocks, and the waves of the blue sea are vast and endless. The gods and goddesses come and go without treating each other, and I want to dominate the sky without any feathers..."
As the sad and sorrowful singing ended, and the strings lingered, everyone finished drinking the jar of Huadiao wine.
Zhao Han stood up, glanced at the people in the hall, and said slowly: "Sadness can bring joy, and now I would like to invite you to taste the 'green' wine of the Yan family in Shuzhong. This wine is mellow, soft, and soft."
If your throat is full, you should serve it with meat and cold dishes to make the most of its properties... The amount is also five kilograms, but the time it takes to taste the wine is less than half an hour."
There was already a servant in the words, and the maid brought the wine and food to the table. Luo Xiaoyao saw the "green" poured out. Its color was light green, its shape was dewy, and its aroma was fragrant. At a glance, he knew it was not inferior to "Returning Drunk".
I was secretly happy.
He is not a drinker, and after hearing Zhao Han praise wine as something that can enlighten one's mind and one's nature, he felt something in his heart, but he put aside his distracting thoughts and faced this time with the spirit of tasting wine, understanding wine, and understanding wine.
Determination and study.
At this time, I saw a petite and beautiful woman walking into the pavilion. After walking to the piano table, she stood still, bowed to everyone, knelt down, and played the piano.
As the soft and joyful melody rose, four tall and beautiful women danced in, their long sleeves waving like dragons piercing the clouds, their bodies spinning like a startling giant, and they were two feet square in the middle of the pavilion.
On the venue, flowers are blooming sometimes, colorful clouds are chasing the moon, and the sound of the piano is pleasing to the eyes and ears.
At this time, the woman sitting beside everyone is as beautiful as a flower, with beautiful eyes and affectionate eyes. Sometimes she fills the pot with wine, sometimes she picks up chopsticks and picks up vegetables. She is considerate, gentle and delicate, but it makes people feel tender.
As Zhao Han said, once everyone's sadness is gone, happiness is rebirth. If Huadiao drinks to make people feel melancholy, the "green" now makes people happy. Although Huadiao is sweet and soft, its stamina is long and will be "
The green wine was accelerating, and I saw someone wrapping his arms around the slender waist of the woman sitting next to him, whispering in a low voice.
When the wine was about to run out, the lingering sound of music lingered around, and a group of servants held another jar of wine and placed it on everyone's tables. Zhao Han, who was sitting cross-legged beside the piano table, closed his eyes and meditated.
Before getting up, he explained the origin of the wine and the tasting time.
Luo Xiaoyao was surprised when he saw another woman playing the piano and four dancing girls exiting the pavilion. However, at this moment, they suddenly heard the sound of konghou and pipa playing on the lake in the south. Everyone looked up through the window and saw two boats floating on the lake.
, a group of musicians on the boat started playing the music with flutes, grates, cymbals, or small drums.
Then a white shadow flashed in the hall, and an Orchid flew in from outside the hall door. He put a red drum that was half the height of a person with a head as big as a palm in the middle of the hall, twisting his plump body around the red drum.
The drum rotates and the palms of the hands clap to the music played by the musicians on the lake.
With the low sound of "dong dong", the Hu Ji suddenly paused and jumped onto the palm-sized drum head. Her naked feet were seen. Sometimes she stood on tiptoes and danced on the drum head, sometimes she flew in the air and fell down.
But the drum head never had its feet standing side by side.
Luo Xiaoyao had already seen that Hu Ji was practicing Qi realm skills. Although she could keep the snare drum from falling with her skills, her dancing posture and the speed of her body changes were astonishing.
When the music on the boat became softer, Hu Ji's movements also slowed down. Everyone saw that under the gauze tightly wrapped, the looming snow muscles twisted with her waist, outlining her plump figure in a heart-warming way.
curve.
At this time, the wine cup on the table had been replaced by a porcelain bowl. The woman beside Luo Xiaoyao filled up the wine, opened her beautiful eyes full of affection, and chuckled, "This wine is very strong, young master."
drink……"
Luo Xiaoyao smelled the aroma of the wine and knew the source of the wine. It was the Khitan horse milk wine that he had drank before. He raised his hand to take the wine bowl and whispered: "Thank you, girl, for reminding me." After saying that, he drank it in one gulp.
All.
This was the first time he spoke to the woman next to him. The woman waited for him to drink the wine, pinched his arm lightly with her hand, and said softly: "Little girl, I saw that everyone was drunk but you were sober. If the young master comes in as he wishes,
When you come to the prison guard, please remember the considerateness of the slave family..."
In embarrassment, Luo Xiaoyao quickly looked around, but saw that many people were already drunk, and there were fifteen or sixteen people who hugged the woman next to him tightly and lowered their heads to chat.
Although the arrow guards Zhu Yongming and Xiong Yingtian who were sitting across from each other had not done anything inappropriate to the woman next to them, they had closed their eyes and rested their minds, thinking that they were using martial arts skills to calm themselves down. Behind them, Zhan Wen and another man
An arrow guard seemed to be too drunk and had fallen asleep on the table.
Luo Xiaoyao had a thought in his mind. He was afraid that he was not drunk at all after drinking three kinds of fine wines, so he closed his eyes and calmed his mind. The reason why he did not become drunk had to do with his cultivation level.
Although he has lowered his realm and concealed his skills, the Qi of his body's Dantian remains unchanged, so he can naturally introduce the power of wine into his Dantian and dissipate it.
As the sound of the music changed rapidly, the woman beside him had already poured the wine to his mouth three times and drank it. But knowing that a bowl weighed a kilogram, Luo Xiaoyao guessed that drinking another bowl would be enough for the test.
When it was over, he opened his eyes and saw Zhao Han standing next to Zhao Hanqin's desk. He looked up. His heart froze. He saw Zhao Han patting his hands lightly, the music stopped immediately, and Hu Ji jumped down from the small drum.
He bowed to Zhao Han and then exited the pavilion.
Zhao Han stood up, glanced around the crowd, and said slowly and calmly: "Zhan Wu, Zhu Yongming, Xiong Yingtian, you three are coming with me..."
Luo Xiaoyao and the others knew that they were among the top three finalists. They looked at each other and followed Zhao Han through the bamboo forest to a pavilion hall in the east of the garden.
After Zhao Han greeted the three people and sat down, he said slowly: "Congratulations to the three of you for passing the examination... However, whether you can enter the prison guard position, our test is not the final decision."
The three of them had already known that this would happen, but they were afraid that Zhao Han would be suspicious, so they looked at each other with surprise and suspicion on their faces.
"The purpose of recruiting talented people this time is to secretly protect an important figure in the court in the future, so the guard, General Xu, needs to be interviewed in person..."
Zhao Han paused for a moment, then said with a smile: "I am going to see General Xu. Without verifying your origins, I need to temporarily close your martial arts skills... I wonder what you think?"
"This... why didn't you say this in advance?" Luo Xiaoyao pretended to be confused and asked.
"The sexton of the court has his own secrets. If the candidates are told in advance that they want to protect an important person in the court, and if someone is interested in secretly following the person who passes the test in the future, wouldn't it be that this important person will be exposed to the public?
Already?"
If it is said that people from Guyuan Realm and Guizhen Realm are recruited to protect the so-called important figures, people who have been in the world for a long time will not believe it. However, Luo Xiaoyao and the other three pretended that what Zhao Han said was reasonable. He hesitated for a moment after hearing the words.
They looked at each other with a look of wealth and wealth seeking something in danger, then gritted their teeth and nodded in agreement.
…
At the time of Xu, the blindfolded Luo Xiaoyao and the others left the Recruitment Hall in a carriage. After an appointment with a stick of incense, the carriage stopped.
Zhao Han, who was accompanying him, chuckled and said, "You three can get out of the car."
Luo Xiaoyao knew that he had arrived at his destination, so he took off the blindfold and got out of the carriage with Xiong and Zhu. He saw that the carriage was parked in a courtyard. He looked at the layout of the courtyard and saw that there was a courtyard to the south.
There are rows of wing rooms, surrounded by walls on the other three sides. There is an arch in the middle of the north courtyard wall, and the flowers, plants and trees inside are hidden.
"You three, please follow me..." Zhao Han walked towards the arch on the north wall and said as he walked: "First go to the side hall and sit down. There are some rules that I need to explain to you in detail."
Luo Xiaoyao also guessed that the so-called rule in his mouth should be to tell the truth about recruiting dual monks. He looked at each other with Xiong and Zhu and followed him.
After passing the arch, we can see that the courtyard is like a small garden. There are rockeries and pavilions among the green trees and red flowers on the east and west sides. There is a hall on the north side. There are several well-dressed men standing on the corridor with high lanterns.
Looking through the lighting in the hall, I saw an old man in his sixties sitting in the guest seat on the left. He was none other than Lu Zongfeng, whom Shaozhou had followed. However, he knew that Zhuo Qinglian must also be in this mansion.
Luo Xiaoyao was secretly happy.
As soon as he stepped onto the hall, Lu Zongfeng came up to greet Zhao Han and said, "Thank you, Master Zhao, for your hard work."
"Mr. Lu, you're welcome. Come, let me introduce you..." Following Zhao Han's introduction, Luo Xiaoyao and the others met Lu Gongfeng one by one.
"The three heroes are all martial arts practitioners. They should know the Taoist Waidan martial arts, right?" Lu Gongfeng said with a smile.
Luo Xiaoyao and the other three knew how to get to the point, looked at each other and nodded.
"If there is a method that can eliminate the dryness caused by taking elixirs, would you three of you be willing to practice it?"
The three of them would not immediately nod in agreement, and all of them pretended to be puzzled.
"Haha, if the three of them have entered the realm of spiritual thoughts, Lu wouldn't dare to persuade them... Take Mr. Xiong as an example, this is a small stage of returning to true nature, and it will probably take three or four years to reach a great level of cultivation."
"And if there are no Dacheng martial arts skills to practice, it will be far away to reach the realm of holding pills! But if you borrow pills to help, your energy can rise sharply. Although it will be difficult to join the Yuanying Avenue in the future..."
Lu Gongfeng paused with his right hand stroking his gray beard, and with a flash of light in his eyes, he glanced at Luo Xiaoyao and the others, and said calmly: "But how many people in the world can participate in the cultivation of Nascent Soul?"
"What does Mr. Lu mean?" Xiong Yingtian asked doubtfully.
"Lu's cultivation level is not high, but he can also see that the exercises practiced by the three of them are not Dacheng martial arts. If they want to reach the level of Lu's skills...hehe, I'm afraid they will have to reach Lu's age.
"
Luo Xiaoyao now concealed his cultivation Qi and was in the Solid Yuan realm. The manifested Qi was of course ordinary, but it was difficult for Luo Zongfeng to see it. It was just that he had the same martial arts as Xiong and Zhu.
Learning is not a great way to achieve success.
"If the three of them are willing to enter the outer alchemy martial arts, Lu can help them..."
"But I'm here to apply for a job as a prison guard..." Luo Xiaoyao pretended to be surprised for a moment.
"Lu, please tell the truth." Lu Gongfeng smiled, "The purpose of recruiting you this time is to recruit Taoist companions who practice the dual cultivation of Taoism... Hehe, even if you are willing, you may not be able to do so.
"
"This..." Luo Xiaoyao glanced at Xiong and Zhu and said anxiously: "I just want to become a prison guard and serve the court. I am not here to seek the martial arts of Waidan..."
"The same goes for Xiong..." When Xiong Yingtian spoke, Zhu Yongming on the side also nodded fiercely.
"Hehe, if you have the opportunity to become a Taoist monk, you will not only be admitted as a prison guard, but you can also be appointed as a school captain immediately."
"Seriously..." Xiong Yingtian asked.
"Haha... Do the three talented people think that Mr. Lu also needs to lie to each other?"