Speaking Up

Chang'an, the center of the world.

The place remains as bustling as ever.

It was already morning, and ripples spread across the great river in the middle of Chang'an. Boats ply the water constantly, and the sounds of oars striking the water are incessant. The oars shatter the reflections of the rising sun on the Bian River.

On the various tributaries of the river, passenger, cargo, transport, and ferry boats of all kinds are interspersed.

Looking at the street again, there was a noisy city, crowds of people, vehicles moving about, and a thousand-foot rainbow soaring above the tall buildings. Willow branches brushed the water, pavilions stood majestically, surrounded by trees, colorful tents and crowds gathered, and thousands of cars sped away like the wind, while a thousand drums thundered past in an instant.

The commerce of the Tang Kingdom has formed a vast network and is under the full supervision of the Nexus of All Realms. Yet, the world is bustling with activity, and countless people have already gotten up and begun to complete their day's work, entertainment, and life.

Various markets have also opened, with hundreds of businesses, especially the vegetable markets, opening their doors to welcome the daily morning crowds as citizens rush to the market.

The Liu family was no exception, and generally speaking, they got up exceptionally early.

After Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi woke up, Liu Junyi had already prepared breakfast and knocked on the door to call Liu Shenzhi and Li Qi to get up and eat.

Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi were both used to this, after all, Li Qi had rested here more than once or twice.

Li Qi knew very well that the Liu family had no servants, Liu Donghe didn't like to order others around, and only three people lived in this house: the Liu family father and son, and Liu Junyi, who was staying here temporarily.

Anyway, with Technique Method at hand, I don't need to do anything myself when it comes to cleaning; I just need to cast a few dust-free talismans. The only housework I usually have to do is laundry and cooking.

None of the three of them were very good at laundry, so they outsourced it to a laundry woman who would come to their house regularly to collect the clothes, wash them, and return them.

As for cooking...

Liu Donghe is obviously the kind of person who can't cook, Liu Shenzhi is a lazy bum, so naturally only Liu Junyi can do it.

Fortunately, Liu Junyi is quite skilled.

This refined and modest gentleman was not the kind of person who never lifted a finger. In fact, there was no such person in the Liu family. Liu Donghe's family tradition was very good, and even Liu Donghe himself often did things like repairing furniture and taking care of the courtyard.

However, this famous scholar's cooking skills... well, let's just say they're questionable.

Li Qi sat down at the Liu family's dining table as if it were a common occurrence.

The breakfast laid out on the table in front of us is a dish of red fermented bean curd salad, a favorite of the Liu family.

After the tofu has fermented, it is soaked in red oil for preservation. When it is ready to eat, it is taken out and steamed several times to make the inside soft. Then the skin is peeled off and flavored.

Prepare vegetables such as lotus root, bamboo shoots, ferns, and celery, steam them until soft, and then add red fermented bean curd on top.

The staple food is flatbread, which is just ordinary white flour cooked together.

However, there is also a dish of meat sauce served with the meal. Take pork, stew it until tender, put peeled walnuts in a pot and mash them. After the walnut oil seeps in, add spices, aged wine, soy sauce, a little brown sugar and other ingredients to the original broth and store it. When you want to eat it, heat it up, then scoop it out and spread it on the pancake. It tastes exceptionally delicious.

The ingredients are all common foods, and there are no spirit beasts or dragon livers and phoenix gallbladders, which would not be in line with the Liu family's consistent simple style, but the taste is definitely not bad.

Sitting at the dining table, Li Qi praised Liu Junyi, "Brother Liu's cooking skills are truly amazing. The taste is comparable to that of the cafeteria."

Comparable to the cafeteria, that's the highest praise.

You should know that the chef in the Imperial Academy's dining hall is Guo Penghai, a chef who has cultivated his culinary skills and reached the fourth rank.

Liu Junyi smiled and said, "As the sage said, one should not be too particular about the fineness of food or the delicacy of its preparation. Even without delicacies from land and sea, everyday meals, like reading, require careful attention."

"If one cannot even take care of one's daily life and diet, how can one possibly take care of one's studies?"

As Liu Junyi spoke, he glanced at Liu Shenzhi, who was eating.

Liu Shenzhi rolled his eyes.

Li Qi found it amusing, but he managed to control his expression well; he couldn't very well laugh at someone to their face.

Liu Shenzhi was used to being lazy, just like most people who don't do housework. His family always wanted to find an opportunity to teach him a lesson, since Liu Shenzhi was sometimes too lazy to even clean his own room.

He only needed one dust-removing talisman, but he felt it was unnecessary, so he often forgot about it and just left it somewhere, which made his father and brothers think he was very incompetent.

At this moment, Liu Donghe, who was sitting in the main seat, said, "Your elder brother is right. If you can't even sweep your own room, how can you sweep the world? If you don't care about the things around you, what else is worth caring about?"

Liu Shenzhi sighed silently and began to play dead, refusing to argue.

In the past, he would have remained silent, since he was like a dead pig that doesn't fear boiling water. Let him say whatever he wants; I'll just do what I need to do.

However, he suddenly remembered what he was going to say next, so he straightened his back, picked up the bowl, and said respectfully, "Father is right, and I was just about to correct myself. After clearing away the bowls today, I will wash them."

Upon hearing this, Li Qi, Liu Junyi, and Liu Donghe were all shocked. They stopped what they were doing and looked at Liu Shenzhi with astonishment on their faces.

Liu Shenzhi remained calm and said, "Li Qi advised me yesterday, and with the usual advice from my father and elder brother, I feel ashamed. So I thought I would start today to change my lazy nature."

Upon hearing this, Liu Donghe felt a sense of relief. Even the strictest father would feel this gratified when his son suddenly realized his mistake.

He looked Liu Shenzhi up and down. "Very good, very good."

As he spoke, he looked at Li Qi again.

Then, Liu Donghe said to Li Qi, "Although people have beautiful nature and discerning mind, they must seek out wise teachers to serve and choose good friends to befriend. Then what they will see is loyalty, trustworthiness, respect and humility. Their bodies will improve in benevolence and righteousness every day, and their minds will improve in self-discipline every day."

"A good friend's ability is to guide them to read widely, to show them success and failure, to enable them to learn from the past and understand the future, to observe others and know this, to drive them on the right path, to restrain them within the bounds of self-discipline, to make them tremble as if hanging on a cliff, and to feel as if riding a galloping horse on ice. Therefore, they can avoid many regrets and misfortunes and lead them to good fortune."

"It is truly a great fortune for Shenzhi to have such a good friend."

To be honest, even Li Qi found it a bit difficult to understand such classical Chinese speech.

Moreover, every sentence in these words is a classical allusion, and each sentence has an ancient story behind it. Even Li Qi, with his extensive reading capacity, found it difficult to keep up.

However, it was still roughly understandable. It was basically praising himself as a good friend for bringing the previously lazy Liu Shenzhi back into the right place, and also implying that Liu Shenzhi was also a "good friend," hoping that Li Qi would continue to maintain a good relationship with him.

After listening, Li Qi immediately said, "That's for sure. I've heard that a true gentleman must read ten thousand books, visit the imperial court, travel to see the mountains and rivers, and make friends with famous people from all over the country. Only then can his vision and understanding naturally broaden, and with the guidance of good friends, he will naturally make progress. Otherwise, he may be complacent and self-satisfied with the chirping of birds and insects, but his character will be narrow."

"Now, Brother Liu and I are like butterflies and flowers, constantly refining and learning from each other, and we are both making great progress."

Li Qi said the same thing.

Although the two hadn't communicated privately, they had worked together for so long that they had a certain understanding of each other, and he understood what Liu Shenzhi meant.

Clearly, Liu Shenzhi was preparing to be a good boy and please Old Master Liu Donghe so that he would be more willing to write poems or essays and praise the Trumpet Flower.

Liu Donghe glanced at the two of them.

To be honest, although Liu Donghe praised Li Qi, rationally speaking, Liu Donghe didn't believe it had any real impact.

The saying "Read ten thousand books, ascend to the halls of power, survey mountains and rivers, make friends with famous people from all over the country, and your vision and understanding will naturally broaden; with good friends to learn from, you will naturally make progress" sounds nice, but Liu Donghe knew that Li Qi was a typical person who didn't like socializing.

Although he appeared polite, he had been in Chang'an for more than half a year and had no friends other than Liu Shenzhi. He had never gone out to play and spent his days studying and cultivating.

What do you mean by "travel"? Have you ever gone out to play?

But...

Liu Donghe glanced at the two of them again.

Indeed, Liu Shenzhi's cultivation has improved by leaps and bounds recently. In the past six months, he has stopped going to brothels like Shangyuan and has focused on his research at home.

Although the research focuses on minor techniques like insect poisoning, it is still a craft, and there is still a possibility of pursuing the ultimate path.

There have been changes.

So, Liu Donghe nodded. "That makes sense. So, do you two have something to say?"

Li Qi gave an awkward smile.

Liu Shenzhi shuddered, glanced at Li Qi, and showed a helpless expression.

Sure enough, Liu Donghe saw through everything; there was no way the two of them could hide anything from him.

But Liu Shenzhi seemed to still want to struggle. He put down his rice bowl, stood up and said, "There are some things I want to report to Father. Father, after we finish eating, could you come with us to my courtyard to see our results?"

"Since we started working, Father has only said that what we are doing is just some minor insect and gu techniques. He has never seen what we are doing with his own eyes. Now that we have finally achieved some results, we still hope that Father can take a step forward and see his son's seventh-grade Dao foundation with his own eyes."

Liu Shenzhi said solemnly, even mentioning the seventh-grade Dao foundation.

In this world, nothing is more important to a person than the Dao Path.

In the Dao Path, the foundation of one's cultivation is the most vital of all. If the foundation of one's cultivation is damaged, at best one will be demoted, and at worst one may even die.

A very important part of one's foundation is the Dao.

Saying this is basically tantamount to confronting Liu Donghe.

As a biological father, I could never refuse such a request.

So Liu Donghe nodded. "Okay, I'll go take a look after that. Sit down and let's eat first."

As Liu Shenzhi sat down, Li Qi also breathed a sigh of relief.

After that, no one spoke; everyone silently ate their rice, and breakfast quickly came to an end.

Then, as mentioned earlier, Liu Shenzhi took the initiative to clear the dishes and wash them.

It's very convenient to wash it off; you can just use Technique Method.

However, Liu Shenzhi cultivated the Reason Way, so he was not very good at these things. He simply took out a Law Treasure, manipulated the water flow to create a whirlpool, and then threw the bowl in to wash it quickly.

The vortex is traveling at a speed of at least 100 kilometers per hour.

Having paid the price of a few broken bowls to settle things, she quickly took Liu Donghe to her courtyard.

Li Qi naturally followed, but he didn't say anything.

Soon, Liu Donghe followed Liu Shenzhi to the small courtyard.

He frowned as soon as he arrived.

Just as he expected, a swarm of insects gathered together, gnawing on fragments of some Law Treasure.

It was filled with... the aura of witchcraft.

It's really unpleasant.

In the eyes of traditional Human Path, Shaman Path is a typical Evil Dao. Many years ago, before the Tang Kingdom, the emperor already regarded witchcraft as an enemy and caused many "witchcraft disasters".

Of course, that was in the past. The world is much more open now, with fewer prejudices. There is also a lot of popular science about Shaman Path on the Nexus of All Realms' network.

However, the overall image of Shaman Path remains sinister and cunning.

To be honest, Li Qi felt that no one else was to blame. Even Li Qi himself felt that the methods of Shaman Path were too strange. Many of their Technique Method could not be described as merely bizarre; they were downright grotesque.

Compared to the magnificent and resplendent Daoist sect next door, the methods of Shaman Path are really... not so respectable, not to mention the historical connection between Human Path and Shaman Path.

However, Liu Donghe was not a pedantic scholar. Although he disliked Shaman Path methods, he knew about the pursuit of the Shaman Path Dao Path itself.

While I don't agree with it, I wouldn't belittle it either.

Furthermore, since this was the foundation of his own son's Dao, he patiently continued to observe and even employed some Confucian methods.

Confucianism excels at applying rules and regulations, but it also employs some auxiliary Technique Method.

He clapped softly and sang in a low voice. "Open your robe to drive away the miasma, clear your eyes to sweep away the clouds and smoke."

This is a special rhythm, combined with poetry.

A wise man once said, "Poetry, rites, and music—music, in particular, can stir the Blood Qi in people, making them unable to harbor even the slightest evil thoughts, thus aligning them purely with the Heavenly Principle. This is what is meant by 'achieving success through music.' It is like taking medicine; initially, one takes it all at once, and with prolonged use, one's hearing and vision become sharp, each benefiting from its effects. This is the origin of poetry, the establishment of rites, and the achievement of music."

Such poetry can make people 'intelligent,' that is, have keen ears and bright eyes.

As he spoke, a glimmer of light appeared in his eyes, and he glanced at the Witchcraft Silkworm before him.

Every detail is visible; no secret can be hidden.

Therefore, he didn't even need any 'explanation'; he saw through all of Li Qi and the others' designs at a glance.

"This is... your achievement?" Liu Donghe asked in surprise, turning to look at Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi standing beside him.

This thing is truly exquisite; it is indeed qualified to serve as the foundation for Liu Shenzhi's Dao.

For someone of the seventh and eighth ranks to achieve such results, those two... are really not just messing around.

"That's right, this is the result of Brother Li and I over the past six months. Of course, it was still far from perfect, but Brother Li went back to Wushen Mountain this time and found the solution to our long-standing problem. Just yesterday, we finally made this thing practical." Liu Shenzhi said immediately.

"Good... well done, not bad." Liu Donghe nodded.

Li Qi seized the opportunity to step forward. "Uncle, we want to sell this product. Could you help us... with some advertising?"