Chapter 24: Reading for the Rise of Tang Family Fort

  I, Tang Family Fort, Starlight Continent.

  These eight characters were first taught by Tang Zheng to a few young children, who repeated them several times and then learned how to write them stroke by stroke.

  After finishing teaching, he let a few little kids start practicing writing these characters.

  "I." Tang Zheng first settled the youngest group of children before starting to point at the first word and speak, "What is 'I'? I, refers to oneself. A complete 'I' consists of many aspects such as self-respect, self-improvement, freedom, self-control and so on..."

  Because slightly older children don't need to practice writing these eight characters, therefore, Tang Zheng can elaborate a bit more for them.

  Starting from the character "I", Tang Zheng first talks about idioms.

  I alone am noble and supreme; I have many enemies but few allies... Among three people walking together, there must be one who can be my teacher.

  Idiomatic phrases were continuously being written on the hanging white paper, rustling softly.

  Soon after finishing the idiom, he flipped through "The Annals of the Violet Gold Empire" and began to recount history for those few largest ones.

  One after another, Tang Zheng found that from teaching kindergarten to doctoral students, it didn't seem so difficult.

  After about half an hour, after finishing "me", Tang Zheng began to talk about Tang's castle.

  Tang Zheng picked up his pen and heavily circled the three words "I", "Tang Family Fort" and "Starry Sky Continent".

  After putting down his pen, Tang Zheng continued speaking.

  "I went out last night and learned the survival rules of Wulong Town with a wound on my neck."

  He suddenly changed his tone and opened his collar.

  A burst of exclamations suddenly erupted from under the podium.

  "Waaah, so scary..."

  "Ah! Master, what's wrong with you?"

  "Who did it? I'll go kill him."

  Tang Zheng pressed down his hand, signaling them to calm down: "I know that many of you think that in a place like Wulong Town, whoever has the bigger fist is the law, so there's no need to read or write, and some of you even come to me to remind me not to drag things out, huh?"

  Tang Zheng tapped the inkstone with his pen holder.

  Those young boys and girls who had searched for him in the martial arts arena all lowered their heads again.

  "I write down these three words, to let everyone know that we are not just a piece of mouse shit, we are going to change the entire Tang Family Fort, walk out of Wulong Town, conquer the Great Navigation Route... Ah, damn it, conquer the Starlight Continent's mouse shit!"

  "I also know that some of you are not interested in learning to read and write Chinese characters, thinking they're useless. So when you were reading books before, it was all with a nose-pinched, unwilling attitude for the sake of your elders..."

  "So, I'll tell you today, in the thick history book of the Purple Gold Empire, among the 108 most dazzling nine-star strongmen, their illiteracy rate... zero! Not a single one! So, can you understand the military strategies, geographical maps, and sand table calculations they left behind?"

  "From today on, I hope you will remember that..." Tang Zheng turned around once again and wrote a complete sentence on the white paper filled with words.

  Read for the rise of Tangjia Town!

  The entire auditorium was silent.

  "From today on..." Tang Zheng raised his pen holder and pointed at the sentence behind him.

  "Read books for the rise of Tangjia Fortress!" All the descendants of Tangjia Fortress who recognized these words shouted out loud.

  Tang Zheng didn't say another word.

  He wants to leave some space for the young masters of Tangjia Village to think clearly.

  Only then will his class go well and no one will make trouble.

  But just then, a little boy about four years old raised his hand and said in a timid voice: "Teacher means that from today on, we are all mouse droppings?"

  "Uh, this... isn't entirely understood in that way." Tang Zheng almost snapped the pen in his hand.

  "No... isn't it?" Little Zhengtai's face was full of fear.

  Tang Zheng swallowed hard and corrected himself: "We... we are the great mouse droppings that can change the future of Tangjia Fortress, even the entire Xingyao Continent's future mouse droppings!"

  Two or three little boys, the smallest of the small, thought for a moment and seemed to understand. They jumped up happily: "We are all mouse droppings, yi ya yi ya yo! We are all mouse droppings, yi ya yi ya yo!"

  "You little rascals!" Tang Zheng was furious and overturned the table.

  The solemn atmosphere of reading for the rise of Tangjia Fort in the lecture hall disappeared instantly.

  ……

  After two periods of intense fighting, Tang Zheng's first class finally passed without incident.

  He has finally taken a big step forward on the long and arduous road of destroying people after completing the great feat of collective teaching from kindergarten to graduate school.

  After hastily finishing lunch, Tang Zheng didn't go to the martial arts arena and hurried back to his own courtyard.

  "Constellation, constellation... my constellation... please don't let it be instant noodles, even if it is instant noodles, not leftover ones, and if it's a whole block of instant noodles, even if it's leftover instant noodles, at least not moldy ones...". Tang Zheng walked along, his heart sinking as he lowered his expectations. Finally, "Forget it, being human can't be so greedy! As long as I have a constellation, who cares what it is? Even instant noodles that have been in the sewer for three years are fine! Uh, is my taste getting heavier and heavier?"

  Tang Zheng returned to the small courtyard and took out that one or two taels of purple gold square "sky price" patterned ink.

  A sheet of white paper had been spread out on his small desk.

  "Big brother, what are you doing?" Just as he was preparing his ink, a clear and crisp child's voice came from behind him.

  "Huh?" Tang Zheng hurried along, unaware of the little tail following behind him - Meng Fengling.

  Tang Zheng was surprised.

  His hearing is absolutely top-notch.

  But Little Bell followed him all the way, and he didn't even hear the bell on her neck ringing?

  "Big brother..." Little Lingling climbed onto the table, happily sitting on the white paper, her chubby little hands poking left and right on the paper, "Big brother wants to write? Wind chime will help you with a red sleeve..."

  "...Tang Zheng quickly picked her up, "Who taught you that 'hongxiu tian xiang' (adding fragrance to the red sleeves) is used like this?"

  "Is it because I'm not wearing red today?"

  "...Tang Zheng's eyes turned black."

  After patting Xiao Lingtong's head and making her stay quietly on one side, Tang Zheng rolled up his sleeves and began to grind the ink.

  A faint purple ink with a subtle scent of a girl's body was ground open, and as the ink entered the water, his entire star power seemed to leap up in joy.

  A pale purple light pattern, changing into various vague shapes, like the inverted reflection on the water surface floated up to the water surface, making the entire inkstone very shiny.

  "Huh? Is this tattoo ink?" said Xiaoling.

  "Hmm, is it tattoo ink? Have you used it before?"

  "No." Little Bell shook her head.

  "When you grow up, brother will give..."

  "I was born with one star... it's unnecessary."

  Tang Zheng really wanted to drive her away.

  According to the first book of "Xīng Xíng Shì", "Starry Palmistry", it is said that by filling the palm with ink and then applying the star power to a white paper, one can see the star chart appearing behind oneself in no time.

  "Come on!" Tang Zheng's spirit concentrated.

  He didn't look at the little bell again, took a slight step back, and with a loud "hiss" sound, suddenly gathered all his star power in his palm and slapped it onto that white paper.

  A faint sound of wind...

  "Huh?" Tang Zheng felt as if his entire perception had retreated into a vast expanse of emptiness.

  The things in front of me, white paper, inkstone, small bell, are all becoming more and more blurred...

  The clearest thing was a layer of pale purple mist that rippled out from his palm.

  Ripples...

  Layer upon layer of purple smoke rose rapidly in his perception, swirling and even enveloping his entire body, flowing through every one of his stellar veins.

  The general impact of the star tide and the star power that converged in his palm produced a collision after another!

  The scorching feeling transmitted from his palm made Tang Zheng almost think that what he was touching wasn't a piece of white paper, but an electric heating pad...

  Then, the star power in his palm suddenly loosened, as if it had been impacted by some kind of force and was completely dispersed.

  At this time, Tang Zheng's senses gradually recovered.

  The small table, inkstone and small bell gradually reappeared in sight, the layers of purple smoke slowly dispersed...

  Tang Zheng moved his hand away from the white paper and held his breath as he looked at it.

  "What's strange? What's this astrology?" The little bell was small and easily climbed back onto the table in front of Tang Zheng.

  "What the hell?" Tang Zheng stared at the image on the paper for a full minute, "The聚宝阁 sold it to me, it can't be expired ink, right?"

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  It's snowing heavily outside, and I don't want to get out of bed... A frozen cat is waving its paws for a monthly ticket...