The Second Hundred and Zero Lu Zhang, the Lord of the Demon City
Although the language spoken by the Great Tengu does not affect the main world travelers who are proficient in the language.
But John was very kind to this, and was not too surprised that the other party spoke Chinese, because even in the world of his previous life, in the island country until the Meiji period, people in the upper class were still accustomed to speaking Chinese and writing Chinese characters.
The most famous period of cultural exchanges between ancient island countries and China was during the Tang Dynasty. According to scholars' research, the Mandarin of the Tang Dynasty was Heluoyin, which originated in the Luoshui Basin of the Yellow River. It was later migrated as people fled wars such as the "Anshi Rebellion" In areas such as Fujian, southeastern Zhejiang and Chaoshan, the dialects in these places still maintained the accent of the Tang Dynasty. By the Song Dynasty, the Mandarin became more similar to the dialects of Guangdong Province in Lingnan.
That is to say, the language spoken by people in the Tang Dynasty is similar to the accent of Hu Jian later, while the Mandarin spoken by people in the Song Dynasty is the source of Cantonese in later generations. It can be said that the civilization of China has a long history, and the formation of dialects in many places has special circumstances in various special periods in history. .
For example, today's Beijing dialect is thought to have a northern accent. In fact, this is not the case. A large part of Beijing dialect is not based on northern dialects, but is based on the dialect brought by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty when he moved his subjects to Beijing as the capital. Fengyang Mandarin and Wusu dialect are the main bodies, developed after hundreds of years of absorbing the pronunciation of northern vocabulary.
This world also has a similar history. In the hundreds of years since the dispatch of envoys to the Tang Dynasty, the upper class of the island country will be proud of speaking authentic Tang dialect.
The legend of the Great Tengu has been around for a long time, so it is not surprising that he spoke Mandarin from the Tang Dynasty.
Even Yuan Laiming was taught by his family since he was a child, and he also spoke the Mandarin of the Tang Dynasty. This is one of the reasons why the island country had the most contacts with China and Fujian in its history. Firstly, it was because of the short distance and convenient shipping routes; secondly, because Both sides understand each other in language.
John still wanted to extract more information from the big tengu, but unfortunately the other party didn't know whether he noticed it or was reticent by nature, and gave very few responses, so he could only move upward like everyone else. , while admiring the magnificent scene of the entire demon city.
The entire demon city is built in an irregular shape on the mountainside. From bottom to top, it is divided into five floors in the shape of terraces. The largest bottom floor is almost half the size of Heian Kyoto City. Each floor becomes smaller as you go up. It looks full of magnificent beauty.
As the group of people moved forward, the aura of monsters around them gradually became stronger. Along the long mountain road stairs leading to the top, each time they climbed to one level of the monster city, the strength of the monsters they encountered would become stronger.
Of course, John also saw many familiar monsters from Middle-earth legends in the monster city, and asked his own questions out of dissatisfaction and curiosity.
Fortunately, although the Daitengu looked serious about these things, he did not shy away from them and still explained them to the guests.
According to the confirmation of the Great Tengu, these monsters migrated to the island country from the Middle Earth very early. Compared with the power of the secular court and Taoist cultivators in the Middle Earth, the island country is relatively chaotic, which gives many monsters room to survive. .
Therefore, the monsters who could no longer stay in China, where the spiritual world was declining over the years, migrated to island countries where the living environment was still acceptable.
By the time we reached the fourth floor, there were only dozens of courtyards here, and the monsters we encountered were all as powerful as the silver assassins John had encountered. They were obviously high-ranking people in the monster city.
Feeling the aura of these monsters, everyone who was already used to being watched for entering the monster's territory felt frightened again.
However, John and the others and Arecio behaved as before. John and the others have seen many silver powerhouses, and they have also seen one quasi-gold powerhouse, and Arecio lives in a place where there are many strong men.
On the other side of the Old Continent, his knowledge is far from comparable to that of the extraordinary people in the New World, known as the extraordinary desert.
Although John is determined to make friends with these powerful monsters, especially there are many monsters from Middle-earth among them. The more powerful the monsters are, the more they are from Middle-earth.
But the Daitengu didn't give him much time to stay, so John could only politely bow his hands to these monsters and say hello to get familiar with them first.
Because they quickly entered the fifth floor, there was only one tall and gorgeous palace in this huge area, which must be the residence of the drinking boy!
John knew that in the legends of the island country, monsters and ghosts were always inseparable, so whether this wine-swallowing boy was a monster or a ghost king, he didn’t know until he saw him with his own eyes.
When everyone followed the Great Tengu into the splendid palace decorated with gold and silver treasures, they saw a man in red clothes, with red lips and white teeth, who looked like a handsome young master leaning on the couch at the top of the empty hall.
A beautiful boy of fourteen or fifteen years old.
The young man's beautiful black and white eyes scanned the people passing by, and then he gently stretched out his hand, and eight seats appeared on both sides of the hall.
A group of maids also walked out of the main hall. Judging from their appearance, they were all young girls dressed in Tang Dynasty, with a touch of collarbone exposed and ribbons wrapped around their shoulders. They were as moving as the reappearance of the Flying Apsara of Dunhuang.
"Guests, please take a seat."
The maid led everyone to sit down. John and the others were arranged on the left, with John in the lead, Arecio second, and Arthur and Brandon sitting two behind.
In the four seats on the right, Minamoto Akira is at the head, followed by the samurai leader of the Minamoto family, and the two Onmyoji are at the back.
Since ancient times, the left has always been respected in China. Obviously, this ranking shows the status of everyone in the heart of the king of monsters.
As for the remaining followers and ninjas, they were all taken away by the Great Tengu to make arrangements. These people lived in a highly hierarchical society, and this arrangement seemed to them to be a matter of course, so they naturally had no dissatisfaction.
It would be really uncomfortable if they were allowed to attend!
Everyone sat down, and the wine-swallowing boy first said a few words, and then clapped his hands, and the maids, who were too beautiful to look like real people, served the wine and cold dishes again.
"You don't have to be formal. Since you have come to my safe demon city, you are my honored guest from the demon city. Please!"
After saying that, he picked up the wine glass, and the drinking boy made a toast. Naturally, everyone did not dare to neglect, and they all picked up the wine cup and drank a full glass.
This wine cup is also of ancient Chinese style, but it is as big as a palm and shaped like an upside-down bamboo hat. It is still made of fine pottery. Although the surface is covered with smooth glaze, it is not porcelain.
Such a container can't hold much wine, but the wine inside has a jade color, as if it is the legendary jade liquid. After just one sip, John felt a little dizzy in his head, and the vitality in his body surged. It was obvious that
This is no ordinary thing.
"Could this be the legendary nectar?"
Yuan Lai Ming also took a sip and said dizzy and surprised.
The drinking boy was not arrogant either, so he explained:
"No, although this wine is brewed from spiritual rice, it is still far from the fine nectar and jade liquid that the gods drink at their banquet."
But John didn't want to waste the power of the wine at this time, so he used the guidance technique of the five-party refining method to breathe and move, and immediately brought the heat emanating from his belly into the body circulation, unlike Yuan Laiming and others.
Let most of the spiritual energy dissipate.
Seeing the vision on John, and then looking at the sword on John's waist that looked ordinary but actually contained powerful spirituality, the young boy couldn't help but shine.
"Could this gentleman be the Sword Immortal from Middle-earth? I didn't expect that after hundreds of years, I can still see the Sword Immortal from Middle-earth, but this body..."