Chapter 20: Changing Ships (Part 2)

  Xiao Siwoken up at noon and handed over the several broken array diagrams he had drawn overnight to Li Shimin's confidant, who was already waiting at the inn. After a hasty lunch, he followed Gou Shaohua and others to the dock to take a boat back to Chang'an.

  Fang Xuanling, however, stayed in Jinyang and said that after meeting with Li Shimin, they chatted for a whole morning, feeling as though they had not met for a long time. He then resolutely joined the Tang State Duke's mansion, planning to take this as his starting point to embark on the path of imperial teacher that he had always yearned for.

  Before parting ways, he quietly handed Xiaosiu a letter and asked him to pass it on to Chao Tianjiao.

  Xiao Si took over the letter and said with a heavy heart: "Xiao Fang, Szechuan pepper is not only very spicy but also numbing, be careful not to hurt yourself."

  "No problem, I've been steeped in it since I was a kid."

  Xiao Si then stopped talking, thinking that Fang Xuanling must have learned the "Tiger Taming Divine Skill" from the ancient saints after reading so many books. It wasn't until many years later, when Old Lady Fang's tiger upgraded to the River East Lion and became famous far and wide, that Xiao Si finally realized that what Fang Xuanling had said to him back then was not "sesame paste" but "mahjong".

  Chai Shao and Li Xiuning saw them off all the way to the dock, where Xiao Si and Wan'er boarded the ship with the others and set sail, bidding a reluctant farewell to Chai Shao and Li Xiuning.

  From Jinyang to Chang'an, the waterway along the Fen River was smooth and easy to navigate, and since the boat was not loaded with cargo, it traveled extremely fast.

  Xiao Si lay in the cabin, took out the "Unseen Brush Notes" left by Lao Mangzi, and flipped through it with nothing to do. This note is almost the essence of Bu Suanzi's life, covering all aspects of the world. But what interested Xiao Si the most was the article about the practice of stacking symbols.

  The layered talisman is different from the combined talismans such as the Two Principles Talisman and the Three Talismans. It involves condensing two, three or even more Taoist symbols seamlessly onto a single piece of talisman paper. Through control over the strokes of the talisman, it can unleash an astonishing power equivalent to multiple talismans in an instant when encountering enemies.

  From the notes, it can be seen that Bu Suanzi has reached a very high level of research and understanding of the stacked symbols in recent years. He even personally refined a four-stacked symbol. Unfortunately, after searching through all the family heirlooms left by Lao Xiao Si, he was unable to find the four-stacked symbol named "Old Tree Withered Vine Dusk Crow".

  Xiao Si discovered that if he could refine a two-layered sixth-grade talisman, its power would be comparable to an ordinary seventh-grade Dao symbol. A three-layered sixth-grade talisman would even surpass the power of a seventh-grade Dao symbol by a wide margin.

  However, due to the extremely high failure rate and complexity of forging layered symbols, they are rarely seen even on the black market.

  Xiao Si quickly summarized the two benefits of refining layered symbols. Firstly, it can make money, and a lot of it; secondly, with several sixth-grade layered symbols for self-protection, people like Duan Shenyi, Jian Yong, and even the monk would be nothing. Even if bad luck strikes and he runs into Old Hawk, he will definitely give his opponent a big surprise.

  Thinking of this, Xīao Sì couldn't wait to start flipping through the notes on the refining method and material composition of the layered symbol. Who would have thought that Lǎo Xiāngzi hadn't written down any specific refining method for the layered symbol, let alone the material composition?

  Xiao Si was greatly disappointed, put away the "Unseen Brush Notes" and took out the Thunder Finger that Zhangsun Guanyin had given him. He muttered to himself: "If I really run into Old Eagle again, I'll be counting on you. Yesterday I forgot to ask that girl what grade of Taoist symbol this is."

  He suddenly lowered his voice, brought the jade tube closer to his eyes, and under the faint light from outside the cabin, he vaguely saw a thread of cyan mist flowing on the surface of the tube.

  The patterns on the jade cylinder were not static, but in a state of mysterious flow and change at all times. The creator took advantage of this clever method to multiply the carrying capacity of the Taoist symbols, making it easy for the jade cylinder to contain the consecutive release and explosion of three Thunderbolt Fingers.

  A flash of insight in Xiao Si's mind: "Isn't this just like the principle of stacking talismans? True talisman stacking isn't simply overlapping and condensing a few talismans together, but rather using dynamic talisman patterns to produce infinite variations, thereby elevating the talisman's carrying capacity to the extreme!"

  As if he had found the key to open the treasure chest, Xiao Si hastily grabbed "Weiming Biji" and carefully re-read the chapter about Chongfu. Many doubts that he couldn't figure out earlier were now suddenly clear, and he could even infer more ingenious ideas from it.

  He was like a sponge greedily absorbing the profound and mysterious nutrients in "Unseen Notes", and a two-tiered symbol refinement plan gradually took shape in his mind. However, from research design to actual refinement, there were still many hurdles to overcome, otherwise, the symbol would not be worthy of being called the "King of Symbols".

  Just as he was engrossed in reading "Unfinished Notes", Geng Shaohua walked into the cabin and said, "Fourth Uncle, we may be in trouble."

  Xiao Siyi suddenly lifted her head and Geng Shaohua said: "There is a big ship chasing behind, it seems to be Wang Renzhen."

  "Go, take a look." Xiao Si put away the "Unseen Notes" and walked out of the cabin. Yi Bai, Mrs. Geng, and Wan'er were already waiting at the stern, gazing at the large ship that was rapidly approaching from afar.

  Xiaosan stood on the dock, gazing out at the river, where a three-story high building boat with white sails stood tall, catching the wind, like an arrow flying through the air, breaking waves and getting closer and closer.

  Dimly visible, Wang Ren stood on the top deck of the building boat, with two old men in green clothes following behind him, mostly high-ranking officials hired by the old king's family. Apart from this, there were probably no less than 70 or 80 people on this building boat, including sailors, among whom there were many sturdy and robust men.

  Looking at ourselves, there are quite a few boats, but if we exclude the boat owners who were hired to drive the boats, there are only about 40 people in total, and our momentum is obviously much weaker.

  Yi Bo spent most of his life on the water, robbing and plundering were his daily routine. Seeing this, he sneered: "Fourth Master, I'll take a few brothers to sneak over and sink that turtle son's boat!"

  Xiao Si Bai Liao Yi Boer glanced at him and asked Geng Shao Hua, "Young Master, what do you think of that building ship?"

  Geng Shaohua didn't understand what he meant and replied vaguely: "It's big, it's good."

  Xiao Si nodded and said: "Yes, it's a good ship. In comparison, our ship is too shabby."

  Yi Bai suddenly came to his senses and excitedly said, "That's right, we hijacked that Wang fellow's ship!" He couldn't help but rub his fists together, feeling deeply that following Xiao Si on this escort mission was truly exhilarating, and they even got to have some fun hijacking a boat along the way.

  Mrs. Geng frowned and said, "Fourth Uncle, isn't this going too far? Although Wang Ren is being arrogant, under broad daylight, our Escort Agency can't just take his sedan chair by force, can we? If it gets to the point of involving the authorities..."

  Xiao Si waved his hand and chuckled, "We are law-abiding citizens, of course we can't rob him. We have to negotiate with Wang Rentong in a friendly manner, I'm sure he'll be happy to exchange ships with us."

  "Change ships?" Geng Shaohua looked down at the boat under his feet, then gazed out at the majestic and powerful luxury cruise ship on the river, hesitating: "How is that possible?"

  "So we should reason with him first, then use force if necessary." Xiao Si said confidently: "A big ship like that, rushing recklessly on the river surface, what if it hurts many people? If our old friend Yi were in charge of the ship, there wouldn't be a problem. Righteousness is our duty, to prevent innocent boatmen on the Fen River from suffering and to ensure the safety of the waterway, we must stop Wang Ren."

  Wan'er warned: "You can't mess around, and besides, Wang Ren might not necessarily be here for us."

  As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Ren stood on the deck of the building boat and shouted loudly: "Surnamed Diao, stop the boat! I want to settle accounts with you for last night!"

  Xiao Si grinned at Wan'er and said: "Dad, I want a big boat!"

  Geng Shaohua sighed and said: "Fourth Uncle, what can we do?"

  Xiao Si calmly and unhurriedly pulled out a string of seven red carp, each the size of a palm, from his waistband.

  "This is Second Master's Big Dipper Dragon Gate Formation!"

  Xiao Si lightly smiled and said: "Old Yi, your eyesight isn't bad, you know how to play, right?"

  Yi Bai nodded and said, "Second Master has used it once before. Fourth Master, I'll take care of this matter, you just watch!" He took the seven North Dipper Dragon Gate fish, called out to Yi Ting and the others, then removed his upper garment and boots and quietly slipped into the water at the bow of the boat.

  Before long, Wang Ren's building ship had chased up to within a hundred feet. The bow immediately appeared with three rows of green-shirted archers, setting up bows that were half as tall as a person, and the bows' bodies shone with white light, clearly having been imbued with talismans. Dozens of feathered arrows shot out in all directions, all aimed at the four people on the ship's stern, including Xiao Si, with an aura of killing intent rushing towards them like a shocking wave.

  "This is the military's three-star 'Tianwang Bow'! Geng Shaohua's face turned angry and he said: "Wang Renze actually dares to use it to equip his own guards, isn't he afraid of being beheaded?!"

  Xiao Si snorted and said: "His uncle is Duke Zhengguo, who would look for trouble after being full?"

  "Bang!" A fishing boat that dodged too late was capsized by the Lou ship. Wang Ren had already chased into range and shouted: "Release arrows!"

  "Whoosh——" dozens of feathered arrows wrapped in a shrill, ear-piercing whistling sound flew across the river surface, like sharp white lightning bolts shooting towards the crowd.

  Geng Shaohua shouted: "Quickly hide!" He himself took two steps forward and drew out his sword, preparing to block the feathered arrow.

  Xiao Si stood still as a mountain, narrowing his small eyes to stare unblinkingly at the feathered arrows shooting towards him like starry rain.

  Suddenly, the arrows flying in all directions changed their trajectory in an unexpected way, circled around in mid-air and shot back towards the building ship!

  Xiao Si laughed and said: "Old Yi did a good job, this is the first variation of the Beidou Dragon Gate Formation - Greedy Wolf Returns!"

  "Plop, plop!" The archers on the opposite building were caught off guard, and in an instant seven or eight people had been shot and fell into a chaotic heap.

  Wang Renze flew into a rage and shouted: "Full speed ahead, catch up with them and ram them to the bottom!"

  The cabin suddenly accelerated, and Xiao Si, with a contemptuous smile on his face, slowly raised his middle finger, while the other four fingers stretched out and moved in unison, like a clumsy turtle crawling.

  Wang Renze was furious and couldn't be stopped, constantly urging: "Hurry up, hurry up, crush this little bastard to death!"

  The towering warship was like a furious giant beast, roaring and charging towards Xiao Si and the others at full speed!

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