Longevity begins with slaying demons and eliminating demons

Chapter 245 Application of Symbols
On this piece of white paper, the small golden number "120" in the upper right corner is not eye-catching, but the national teacher stared at it for a long time, and then sighed softly.

His eyes were in a trance for a moment, as if recalling the past.

After seeing the look on the national teacher's face, the academy teacher Fu Tao couldn't help asking: "Master National Teacher, Mo Li and Gu Xu both answered all the questions correctly, why are their final scores different?"

The national teacher thought for a moment and replied: "There are hundreds of thousands of 'Taos' in this world, but these 'Taos' do not exist independently, but are closely related to each other, and will eventually lead to the same goal.

"Mo Li's answer is not wrong, but his mind is still bound by the talisman, and he is still just reciting the knowledge in the book.

"However, Gu Xu has already noticed the similarities between the 'Tales of Talismans' and the 'Tao of Cause and Effect'. His answer is a new understanding of the art of talismans and seals."

Speaking of this, the national teacher paused for a moment, lifted the white porcelain teacup in front of him, took a sip of the 'baiwei tea', and then said: "Many years ago, after I realized this, I broke through the barriers on the talisman path. Bottleneck, among the 'master' realm.

"Although Gu Xu is currently only a third-level cultivator, he already has the consciousness to integrate various Taoisms. I believe that as long as his cultivation can keep up, he will have a high probability of becoming a master in the future. The new Talisman Master of the Qi Dynasty."

While speaking, the scene when he met Kongxuan Sanren decades ago appeared in the mind of the national teacher.

At that time, Kongxuan Sanren was a handsome elder with white hair and a childlike face. He spoke humorously and wittily, which inspired the national teacher a lot.

Who would have thought that he would fail in his ascension and turn into a ghost?
…………

Fu Tao was silent for a while, apparently he did not expect that the Grand Master of Qi would give Gu Xu such a high evaluation.

He is also a master of Talisman himself.

But ever since he first came into contact with the art of talismans and seals when he was young, he has devoted himself to it, and seldom spends energy on studying other Taoism and martial arts.

Perhaps it is because the threshold for learning Talisman is extremely high, and there are high requirements for qualifications and comprehension.

Some talisman masters of the Great Qi Dynasty would have a sense of superiority deep in their hearts, thinking that the art of talisman and seal is an elegant and superior knowledge.

In their eyes, sword cultivators and sword cultivators are vulgar warriors with simple minds and well-developed limbs, monks who are good at the art of poisonous Gu have dark hearts, and those who learn the art of divination and prophecy are all liars...

Although Da Qi Guoshi's strong recommendation for Gu Xu made Fu Tao feel a little unhappy in his heart, but Fu Tao still recognized the Guoshi's talisman attainments.

"Perhaps, this is the root cause of my talisman cultivation stagnating in recent years?" Fu Tao thought silently, "Should I try to understand some other Taoism?"

…………

At the same time, several candidates are resting quietly in several side rooms.

There is a special formation in the room, which can isolate the noise from the outside world and prevent them from being disturbed.

However, although these formations can be soundproof, they cannot block the curious eyes of the onlookers.

There were still quite a few people standing under the steps a few meters away, trying to see the faces of several candidates clearly through the carved windows.

Mo Li was very satisfied with his performance in the first session.

He believes that no one will get a higher score than him.

So, he sat on the straw mat beside the bed in a relaxed posture, and reached out to pick up a banana from the low table beside him—this is a snack prepared by Longmen Academy for the candidates. Gnabbing, he opened the notebook he carried with him, reviewing his notes again.

"The next link is the 'application' of Talisman," Mo Li thought to himself, "What method will the National Teacher and Academy choose to investigate us? Will they simulate ghosts with illusions, and then let us use the Talisman The art of seal script to kill ghosts?"

Mo Li was not worried about this at all.

At least half of the talismans and seals in the various books of the Qi Dynasty were used to deal with ghosts and evil spirits.

And Mo Li was familiar with them by heart.

Inadvertently, Mo Li raised his head and saw many juniors and juniors from Longmen Academy outside the window looking at him on tiptoe, some were giving him cheering gestures, and some were mouthing to him "Senior Brother Mo!" , we will support you" or "Senior Brother Mo, you must win glory for our Longmen Academy".

Mo Li was a little moved.

However, as a person who is obsessed with Taoism and is often called a "nerd", he didn't know how to respond to these enthusiastic juniors and juniors, so he could only smile silently, then lowered his head and continued to read his notes.

Although in the next two links, he is not sure of victory.

But he also has to do his best not to disappoint those who support him.

…………

But at the window of the room where Gu Xu was, there was a different scene.

In the hazy rain and fog, there were many female students of the academy standing.They wore wooden hairpins on their heads and gray and white two-color robes from the Academy, looking quite bookish.

Looking from a distance, it forms an elegant ink painting with the surrounding misty rain.

With the power of true energy, they can easily block the rain and prevent it from getting wet on their clothes.Even standing in the rain, the clothes are still fluttering.

At this moment, they were discussing the talisman contest with smiles on their faces, saying things like "Senior Brother Mo looks so confident, he must have already won".

But in fact, their gazes were quietly glancing at the window not far away, wanting to take another look at the handsome boy in the room.

Of course, while peeking, they also maintained a very vigilant mentality, for fear that their restless eyes would be discovered by their companions.

"Hu Xiaoyun, what are you looking at secretly?" A female student joked to her companion.

"I... Sister Ya, look, a sparrow flew over that roof just now." The young girl called "Hu Xiaoyun" stammered.

The full name of the female student called "Sister Ya" is "Wang Ya".

She patted Hu Xiaoyun on the shoulder with a smile, and saw through her lie at a glance: "Don't lie to me. Where is the sparrow? You are clearly watching Mr. Gu from the Exorcist Department secretly."

A faint blush immediately appeared on Hu Xiaoyun's face: "I... I don't have it! Today I am a staunch supporter of Brother Mo, so I will not defect to the enemy!"

"That's good," Wang Ya smiled, "I hope you can firmly remember the position of our academy students, but don't be fooled by beauty!"

Hu Xiaoyun nodded seriously.

She resolutely told Wang Ya that she would never judge people by their appearance - Gu Xu was just an embroidered pillow with a superficial appearance, and senior brother Mo was the one with real talent and learning.

However, at this moment, Gu Xu in the room suddenly raised his head and glanced out the window.

The female students outside the window were finally able to fully see his appearance.

Wang Yaze stood still, stunned for a moment.

"Is my hair a bit messy?" After a while, she asked Hu Xiaoyun beside her.

"No." Hu Xiaoyun glanced at her neatly combed black hair, not understanding why she would ask such a question.

"That's good." Wang Ya breathed a sigh of relief.

But she still couldn't help but took off the hairpin on her head and rearranged her bun.

…………

Gu Xu knew nothing about the little thoughts of the girls outside the window.

He also didn't take the time to guess the form of the next few links - because he usually has deep skills and a solid foundation, he can naturally deal with any form of challenge calmly, and there is no need to "push questions" at all.

At this moment, his mind was very relaxed, and he continued to deduce the "Star Array" in his mind.

He began to screen out the best solutions for offense, defense, and escape among hundreds of permutations and combinations.

He believes that if he can master the spell "Star Array" as soon as possible, his combat effectiveness will be greatly improved in the future ghost killing missions and in the "Luoshui Conference" this spring.

The Academy kindly placed a plate of fruit beside him.

He picked up an orange, peeled it, and stuffed it into his mouth one by one, the sour taste rippling on the tip of his tongue.

Inadvertently, he raised his head, looked through the window at the gray sky.

His gaze seemed to penetrate the thick clouds, and he caught a glimpse of the bright stars in the sky-they twinkled, as if winking at him, quietly waiting for his call.

…………

Half an hour passed quickly.

Gu Xu ate two oranges and a few winter jujubes, then faced the melodious bell, and under the eyes of everyone, he walked out of the room and returned to "Siqi Hall".

The four desks are still fixed in place.

Gu Xu sat on the original chair.

At this time, he found that besides the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, there was also a thick stack of documents on his desk.

On the topmost piece of paper, there were four large characters "Luoshui Conference".

"After investigating the 'accumulation', it should be to examine our 'application' of the technique of talisman seals," he guessed in his heart, "In this Luoshui Conference, where can we use talisman seals? Could it be that we need to design a set of talisman arrays in the arena to prevent monks from hitting too hard and injuring their opponents' lives?"

At the same time, the other three candidates sat down in their respective positions one by one.

The person closest to Gu Xu is Shen Qiu.

He leaned on his chin with one hand, his two short legs kept shaking, and his eyes wandered around.

When Gu Xu's eyes fell on him, he also gave Gu Xu a smile - not like a provocation between opponents, but more like a sentence of encouragement like "Brother, it will be up to you later".

Soon, the Grand Master of Qi also appeared in front of them.

I only heard him say with a serious face: "Teaching others to learn Talisman requires not only helping them master the knowledge of Talisman in books, but also teaching them to apply the art of Talisman to practical problems—you, This capability is also required.

"The document placed in front of you comes from the Ministry of Rites. It is the process plan design of this year's Da Qi Dynasty's Luoshui Conference. It also includes data such as the salaries of the participants and the prices of various materials.

"Based on these documents, you need to use the art of talismans to estimate the silver expenditure for this year's Luoshui Conference.

"During this process, you cannot directly do mental calculations, nor can you use other spells or supernatural powers.

"Your talisman seals should also come from books as much as possible - you can make small improvements to them, but don't rely on intuition and random creation, after all, the students you will teach in the future will not have such abilities.

"Fu Jiaoxi, Du Jiaoxi and I will evaluate your performance based on the time you spend and the talismans you use."

The words of the national teacher surprised everyone present.

They thought that the so-called "application" would require them to use talisman seals to simulate combat, either to learn from each other, or to exorcise evil spirits.

Unexpectedly, they were asked to use talismans to estimate the budget of the "Luoshui Conference".

Especially the children of powerful families like Mo Li and Shen Qiu used to have a special accountant to help them with such troublesome things.

But now they need to do it themselves.

This undoubtedly caused them some headaches.

Shen Qiu originally thought that he could stick a talisman on his head to speed up his thinking, and then use his powerful spiritual consciousness as a practitioner to calculate the result in his heart.

But the words of the national teacher "can't directly do mental calculations" put an end to his idea of ​​tricking.

He let out a long sigh, and couldn't think of a good way for a moment.

When the second bell rang, everyone began to look through the documents and think about their own plans.

Loose cultivator Zhao Xinran was the one who found the solution the fastest.

She picked up a piece of white paper, picked up a pen and began to quickly draw on it, and soon drew a handsome boy in black, which looked very realistic.

Only his eyes are blank.

At this time, she changed to a wolf fine brush, and began to draw complex runes stroke by stroke on the eyes of the boy in black.

"Dotting the eyes!"

Gu Xu immediately recognized the spell she used.

This is a very unpopular spell recorded in books, and it can be given spirituality by drawing runes on the eyes of the characters in the painting.

Gu Xu once used this method to make the little book boy on the screen in his home come out of the painting, serve him tea and clean up.

At first, because of his lack of cultivation, the little book boy's IQ was extremely low, and the things he could do were very limited.

But later, he combined Kongxuanren's "puppet manipulation" technique with "pointing eyes and giving spirits", so that the little book boy can completely obey his will and make more and more complicated actions.

Unexpectedly, today, he would be able to meet the second person who knows the art of "dotting the eyes and giving spirits" here.

"There are indeed a lot of talents in Luojing City, which should not be underestimated." He sighed in his heart.

After Zhao Xinran finished drawing the runes on the eyes of the boy in black, the boy in black suddenly blinked his eyes, then stretched out his hand, supported the edge of the paper, and with a strong push, he crawled out of the painting.

Then he bowed deeply to Zhao Xinran and said, "Excuse me, are you my master?"

"That's right." Zhao Xinran nodded.

"Then what should I call you?"

"Just call me 'Master'."

"Yes, Master."

Then, under Zhao Xinran's command, the boy in black picked up the documents on the table, sat on the ground, and began to calculate the expenses of the "Luoshui Conference".

Gu Xu began to think about whether he should solve this problem in the same way.

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(End of this chapter)