The Great Wei Music Bureau

Chapter 174 The Six Arts of a Gentleman (Part 6)

Last time we talked about the archery competition between Li Yi and Chen Xin. The two sides ended in a draw in the first game. Let’s take a look at the rest of the competition.

After confirming with Chen Xin that the three arrows connected together would have a better effect, Li Yi activated his taunting skill towards Zhang Deyuan, who was very disdainful of it. Li Yi smiled and said, "Everything is possible! Don't forget, there is a character Yi in my name. Maybe I am the descendant of Dayi!"

Zhang Deyuan rolled his eyes at Li Yi and muttered, "Humph! Just because there's a character Yi in your name, you have to be related to Dayi? Doesn't Li Yuefu know that Dayi has no descendants? If you want to force a connection, you should say you are Dayi himself!"

Li Yi shook his head and smiled, ignoring him, he drew his bow and shot three arrows in succession, and the arrows were connected from head to tail and lined up in a straight line in the center of the bull's eye!

Chen Xin was stunned. Now he was sure that Li Yi was just playing dumb and his archery skills were no less than his. The Northern Wei envoys cheered again, and Li Yi once again high-fived everyone in the envoys to celebrate.

Just as Zhang Deyuan was about to speak to strike a blow to the morale of the Northern Wei delegation, Chen Xin reached out to stop him. Looking at Chen Xin's determined eyes, Zhang Deyuan knew that this most outstanding general of the younger generation of Liang State was going to take real action this time.

When Li Yi returned to the field after celebrating, Chen Xin said with a smile: "Li Lefu has great archery skills. I lost in this event, but next, shouldn't we compete seriously?"

Li Yi asked in confusion: "I am already very serious. How can General Chen expect me to be serious?"

Chen Xin said seriously, "The next item is the Yanzhu, which is to shoot ten arrows quickly. You and I need to draw our bows at the same time. Whoever shoots ten arrows first and hits the bull's eye wins."

Li Yi asked in confusion: "But if we shoot arrows at the same time, I'm afraid this bow won't be enough?"

Chen Xin said, "It doesn't matter. I still have a bow." Then he shouted to his brother Chen Zhao in the audience, "Brother, let me lend you my bluestone bow." Chen Zhao casually threw the bow into the venue. Chen Xin took the bluestone bow and signaled to Li Yi that they could start at any time.

Li Yi nodded, and Chen Xin said, "Okay, let's count to three and start at the same time." So the two began to count, and when they counted to two, Li Yi suddenly shouted stop, and said, "Um, General Chen, let me confirm again, are we going to start shooting when we count to three, or after we count to three, we say start shooting?"

Li Yi actually did this to disrupt Chen Xin's rhythm, just like in a 100-meter race, there will always be someone who rushes first, just to disrupt the opponent's rhythm.

However, Li Yi's trick did not work this time. After the two counted to three, they started shooting at the same time. As a result, Li Yi was not skilled enough to shoot five arrows, while Chen Xin had already finished shooting, so Chen Xin won this round. The current situation is that both sides have one win, one draw and one loss, and it is a draw.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Deyuan finally relaxed. In his opinion, as long as Chen Xin took it seriously, he would definitely win!

Chen Xin said to Li Yi, "Next is Xiangchi. This was originally a ritual of archery between the monarch and his subjects, but for us, there is no need to compete in this ritual, so we changed it to two people shooting arrows alternately, and the last one to shoot has to step back one foot. What do you think, Li Yuefu?"

Li Yi asked in confusion: "Doesn't that mean whoever has the heavier bow has the advantage?"

Chen Xin waved his hand and said, "That may not be the case. This bluestone bow is a 700-jin bow. I will use this bow to compete with Li Yuefu."

Li Yi nodded and said, "Well, how about General Chen demonstrate it first?"

Chen Xin shook his head and smiled, "Li Lefu, stop pretending. You are obviously an archery expert, how could you not know your range? Besides, I have demonstrated so many times. This time, it's just a competition of who can shoot farther. You should go first."

Li Yi scratched his head. He really didn't know how far he could shoot, so he walked to the wall on the south side of the training ground and shouted, "General Chen, ask someone to move the target to the other side of the wall."

Seeing this, Chen Xin shook his head and said, "Li Lefu, let's have some fun!" Then he shouted loudly towards the river bank, "Set up targets on the other side of the river!"

Soon, soldiers set up targets on the other side of the river. The distance was two hundred steps, which was quite far for people below the Transcendent Realm.

Li Yi looked at the target on the other side of the river. It looked like a coin to the naked eye. It would be difficult to hit it. He came to Chen Xin and asked, "General Chen, can you hit it from such a distance? I don't believe it!"

Chen Xin snorted, pulled the bowstring to its full length, aimed at the other side, then raised his hand and drew the bow. With a whoosh, the arrow drew a perfect parabola and hit the bull's eye. Everyone present cheered, and shouted, "The general is mighty!"

Tuoba Li was also surprised when he saw this: "You can hit it from such a distance? This, this is too much! It's over, Li Yuefu is doomed to lose this round."

Li Yi gave Chen Xin a thumbs up and praised: "General Chen is really amazing! I admire you so much!" Chen Xin stretched out his hand to signal Li Yi to shoot an arrow. The latter awkwardly imitated Chen Xin's movements, first aiming at the target on the opposite bank, then raising his hand to draw the bow, but he always felt something was wrong, so he put the bow down again.

After confirming the position of the target again, Li Yi closed his eyes, put aside the issue of winning or losing, cleared his mind of distracting thoughts, subconsciously mobilized the power of his soul, and injected spiritual power into the bow and arrow. As he loosened three fingers of his right hand, the arrow shot out with a brown cyclone!

With a clang, the arrow not only hit the center of the target, but also completely penetrated the target and nailed it directly to the ground! Everyone was stunned, even Chen Xin looked at Li Yi in disbelief. You know, Li Yi used the flat shooting method at this distance, which even Chen Xin couldn't do.

Chen Xin recalled Li Yi's previous actions and the brown cyclone on the arrow. He seemed to understand something. Then he pulled the bowstring to its full extent and injected the Qi base into the arrow. After activating it, the arrow flew out with the cyclone, but after a hundred steps, it lost its strength and fell into the river.

After the attempt, Chen Xin exhaled, threw the bow back to his brother Chen Zhao, then walked to Zhang Deyuan and saluted, saying: "Minister Zhang, there is no need to compete in Jingyi. I lost. To be exact, I don’t know how to win. Li Yuefu’s archery skills are much better than mine." After saying that, he saluted and left.

Zhang Deyuan collapsed when he heard this, because after Li Yi won this match, it meant that the Northern Wei delegation had won the competition of the six arts of a gentleman, and it was meaningless whether to compete in the last match or not. He stared blankly at Li Yi who was celebrating with the delegation, without saying a word.

At this time, Chen Zhao came to Zhang Deyuan and bowed, saying, "Minister Zhang, are there any more competitions for the Five Imperial Guards?"

Zhang Deyuan shook his head and sighed, "What else is there to compete for? Even if we win, we've lost. I've really brought shame upon Daliang Confucianism!"

Chen Zhao looked at the depressed Zhang Deyuan and said nothing more. He just bowed and said goodbye calmly. He came to the Northern Wei envoys, bowed to Li Yi and asked, "Daliang Zhenbei General Chen Zhao pays homage to Li Yuefu!"

Li Yi turned around and looked at Chen Zhao, then immediately returned the greeting: "Oh, hello General Chen, are you coming to compete in the next round?"

Chen Zhao shook his head and smiled, "Minister Zhang is no longer in the mood to compete with me. I guess it won't happen. But I really want to compete with Li Yuefu. I wonder if Li Yuefu would honor me?"

Li Yi said awkwardly, "General Chen, you two brothers want to spar with me, I can't handle it. How about this, when I finish my business, we can make an appointment again?"

Chen Zhao nodded and said, "Okay. Then I will take it as that you, Li Yuefu, have agreed. When we finish our business, my brother and I will come to visit again." After that, he bowed and left.

After a round of cheering, Lu Yu said, "Okay, Your Majesty, Li Yuefu, should we go to Zhang Shangshu to discuss the follow-up matters?"

Tuoba Li nodded and said, "Yes, yes, I am just too happy. Let's go and see if he has any reason to hold us back this time."

So Tuoba Li took Lu Yu and Li Yi to find Zhang Deyuan. The winner naturally had to act like a winner. After some friendly and enthusiastic banter and ridicule, Zhang Deyuan agreed to arrange for Li Yi to go to Tongde Temple to pay a visit to Emperor Xiao Yongming of Liang, and to hold a banquet at Honglu Temple tonight to formally receive the Northern Wei envoys. This gentleman's six arts competition ended in an unhappy ellipsis.

The audience had almost dispersed, and the Northern Wei delegation was about to return to the inn to rest when a group of people suddenly blocked their way. These were the Youwei people, and they stopped the delegation because of Cui Zhi.

Seeing this, Tuoba Li angrily said, "What are you going to do? Don't you know who we are? We are the envoys of the Great Wei!"

The commander of the Guards rode forward, clasped his fists and saluted, saying, "We are the Guards of Daliang, and we are here to arrest the spies on the orders of Your Majesty! Please, Prince Ping'an, please help us."

Zhang Deyuan stepped forward and asked, "Commander Chen, these are indeed the Wei envoys. How did they catch spies in the envoys?"

Commander Chen pointed at Li Yi and Cui Zhi and said, "Minister Zhang, you don't know, Li Yi used the alias Li Jing and caused trouble in Jin'an Temple and Zhu Zi's wedding banquet, and also destroyed Lingyin Temple with a group of evil cultivators. And his maid was a spy from the Wei State. She used the alias Su Xiao, a singing girl, and made friends with the sons of high-ranking officials in Daliang in Linjiang, trying to win them over with her beauty. Her intentions are even more sinister." Zhang Deyuan looked at Li Yi and Cui Zhi with an expression of disbelief.

Tuoba Li shouted, "Minister Zhang, you Liang State can't afford to lose? You don't even want to save face after losing a competition!"

Zhang Deyuan waved his hands and said, "No, no, no, Your Majesty, there must be some misunderstanding here. The Guards are directly under the Emperor, and I don't know what's going on! Commander Chen, are you mistaken?"

Commander Chen smiled and said, "Master Shen personally pointed it out, how could he be wrong?"

At this time, Shen Lu walked out of the crowd with a look of resentment, stared at Cui Zhi and said harshly: "Miss Su, Taoist Li, it's been a long time since we last met!"

Jiang Hongyu saw Shen Lu standing in front of Cui Zhi. Shen Lu said coldly, "Commander Chen, that female swordsman and that child are also spies. They must be brought back to the garrison for interrogation!"

Yu Jiu was about to take action when he heard this, but Li Yi stopped him with his hand and said with a smile, "Master Shen, I wonder if you want to arrest us, or your father?"

Shen Lu replied: "The guards are directly under the emperor's command. It was His Majesty who ordered the guards to catch the spies. What does it have to do with my father?"

Lu Yu immediately questioned, "Didn't the Emperor of Liang become a monk? Then when did you issue the order? How did you issue the order? In my opinion, you are falsely conveying the emperor's order!"

Commander Chen shouted, "How dare you frame Youwei! Come on, arrest all the Northern Wei envoys!"

"Stop! I see who dares to move!" A man on a white horse galloped over. It was none other than the Crown Prince of Southern Liang, Xiao Zongqing. Who would have thought that he would be the one to come to the rescue? However, Xiao Zongqing held the golden order and said solemnly, "Father has given an order!"

Everyone in the Southern Dynasty dismounted and knelt. Xiao Zongqing continued, "Summon the special envoy of the Wei Kingdom's wedding delegation, Li Yi, to the Tongde Temple for a talk. Youwei must not embarrass the Wei Kingdom's delegation again!"

Everyone was stunned. Shen Lu bowed and asked, "Your Highness, are the Northern Wei spies not going to be arrested?"

Xiao Zongqing said coldly, "I heard that it was you, Shen Lu, who persuaded the Minister of the Central Secretariat to surrender to my third brother! You yourself did not know how to judge people and fell into their trap, but you want to use the royal guards to help yourself escape the crime? Chen Xingguo, Commander Chen, the royal guards also asked me to ask you, which direction does the gate of your guard house open to?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Xingguo immediately kowtowed and said, "Your Majesty, the gate of the Guard has always been open to the Imperial Palace!"

Xiao Zongqing nodded and said, "That's good. Commander Chen, remember that the gate of your guard post opens to the imperial palace, so don't open the door to the Shen family!" After that, he turned to Li Yi and saluted, "Li Yuefu, please come in, let's go to Tongde Temple together, my father is still waiting."

Li Yi saluted and said yes, then asked, "What about the people in our delegation?"