I picked up skill fragments in the demon world.

Chapter 540 The battle between avenues
The steel whip exploded in the air like a firecracker. Zhang Chen took a step forward and dodged the opponent's attack. He looked at Ping Beihou in disbelief: "I came to deliver a message for you. Why did you attack me?"

"Are you here to deliver a message for me? Haha~ You damned pariah, you dare to come to my study to deliver a message today, and you will dare to assassinate me tomorrow." Ping Beihou's eyes were full of coldness, and the steel whip in his hand twisted like a dragon, constantly gnawing at Zhang Chen.

Zhang Chen sighed softly when he saw this. At this time, Pingbei Hou was protected by dragon energy. His true dragon energy could not break through the opponent's protective dragon energy for the time being, and he could not do anything to the opponent, so he could only dodge continuously: "Is it because of this?"

Zhang Chen's voice was filled with disbelief.

"That's enough! Killing you, a daring assassin, is more important than what you said." Ping Beihou kept waving the steel whip in his hand, but he controlled it to the extreme without damaging any furnishings in the room.

Zhang Chen now understood the other party's thinking. For the other party, it was more important to kill someone who could threaten his existence.

Zhang Chen misunderstood. He thought that the other party would be overjoyed after receiving his message, or would try to recruit him. But who knew that the other party's first thought would be to kill him?

Come to think of it, when people face something that may threaten their lives, their first thought is to kill the other party first. Only when they cannot kill the other party, will they start negotiations and recruiting.

Just like when the imperial court faces rebels, its first thought is to destroy them, and only when it fails to destroy them will it try to win them over.

Zhang Chen was very disappointed with Ping Beihou and this damn bureaucratic system. Should the common people never have a chance to rise and be trampled underfoot?

Zhang Chen flashed and used his escape technique to disappear into the house. Then he appeared on the street and walked towards the grain store.

"Sure enough, Chen Sanliang was right. I was too naive."

Zhang Chen bought some food and had just walked out of the door of the food store when he saw soldiers surging on the street, constantly stopping passers-by and searching them.

"No need to think, they must be here to arrest me." Zhang Chen looked at the teams of soldiers who were as ferocious as wolves and tigers. He disappeared on the spot in a flash and when he reappeared, he was already outside the city. He saw that his family members had packed their bags and were ready to start their journey.

Zhang Chen's escape technique cannot carry too many items, but it is still no problem for him to carry items as heavy as himself.

He bought thirty kilograms of rice, enough for his family to eat for half a month.

"Let's go. We'll have refined rice for our next meal." Zhang Chen smiled and threw the refined rice onto the carriage.

Hearing Zhang Chen's words, the three little ones cheered. Then Zhang Chen took out the map and looked at it. After confirming the location of the next city, he walked in the direction of that city.

Of course, he didn't follow the map exactly. Zhang Chen was not a fool, so how could he follow the map directly? He only needed to determine the location between the two cities, and then walk in front of them himself to confirm the route, and then lead his family to follow the route he found.

For Zhang Chen, he could transform into a vampire bat and travel hundreds of miles in an hour. In addition, he could easily see towns hundreds of miles away from his high vantage point, so exploring the way was not difficult for Zhang Chen.

Zhang Chen did not walk fast, after all, he had to consider the bumpy ride that the women and children in the car would suffer.

It was ten days later when Zhang Chen arrived at the next city. Zhang Chen passed by the city without entering, and directly set up camp in the dense forest outside the city, and then entered the city to gather news.

Zhang Chen took the dried meat and skins he hunted to the street to sell, and stood in a corner listening to the merchants coming and going and joking about all kinds of gossip.

At this moment, a voice came into Zhang Chen's ears, making him stand up. He listened attentively to a man selling rabbits next to him, saying, "Have you heard? Chen Sanliang has entered the pass. A few days ago, he defeated three academies in the territory of Pingbei Hou. He took down the plaques of the three academies and ordered them to disband. In the future, the three academies will no longer be allowed to preach and teach. The deans and teachers of the three academies will never be allowed to write again! All cultural heritage in the territory of Pingbei Hou has been cut off."

"What? Is there such a thing? Who is Chen Sanliang? He actually forced three academies to close down?" The vendor selling sickles next to him suddenly became alert and asked while eating melons. "I also heard some passing merchants talking about it when I was hunting in the mountains before. Chen Sanliang was known as the best person in the academy in the past. He was exiled to the north by the academy because of his arrogance and disrespect. He was constantly suppressed. Later, his wife died tragically. He surrendered to the demon tribe and led the demon tribe to invade the north and tear the defense line of the Great Wall of Bones. With the support of the demon tribe, he personally stepped into the land of China for revenge and made a great ambition to challenge all academies from south to north. If he wins, the academy will take down its sign and disperse all the students. All the gentlemen in the academy will never write again in their lives. From then on, they will stop writing and become illiterate. If he loses, he will leave his life in the academy and become a stepping stone for the academy." said the vendor selling rabbits.

Zhang Chen was shocked when he heard this: "Isn't Chen Sanliang playing too big? How confident must he be in his knowledge to make such a bet? And are those teachers in the academy stupid? They would agree to such a bet that would ruin their own future?"

No one will joke about their future.

Zhang Chen's question was exactly the same as the one in the mind of the sickle vendor next to him, so he asked, "Are those three academies crazy to agree to such outrageous conditions?"

"Haha, what do you know? As the saying goes: There is no first in literature, and no second in martial arts. Those who can open academies are extremely confident in their knowledge. How could they be afraid of Chen Sanliang? Once Chen Sanliang challenges them, if they avoid the battle, their hearts will be overshadowed, and their cultivation will be wasted. They will directly become useless. What's the difference between that and stopping writing?" The rabbit meat vendor was quite knowledgeable: "I heard that Chen Sanliang also took out a treasure that the other party couldn't refuse. It is said to be a legendary innate charter, which is a text formed by innate nature. This is definitely a supreme thing that all scholars can't resist. In order to see it, they are willing to die."

“Of course, there were academies that chose to avoid fighting after seeing the miserable plight of the other two academies, but Chen Sanliang directly took women’s clothes and hung them in front of the academy gate to humiliate them. No one could bear such humiliation.” The hunter’s voice was full of sighs.

"You are quite knowledgeable. You know about this kind of thing?" The peddler selling sickles looked at the hunter in surprise.

"I just heard those gentlemen passing by talking about it and then repeated it to me," said the hunter.

Zhang Chen, who was listening to the two's discussion, showed a cautious look in his eyes: "Chen Sanliang has used the means of playing with people's hearts to the extreme! He first uses the Xiantian Charter to seduce the other party. If the other party refuses to follow the Tao, he will simply block the door and humiliate him with women's clothes. After such a series of punches, if the other party avoids the fight, his spirit will surely collapse, and he will question the knowledge he has studied for decades, thus shaking his own thoughts and eventually his Tao heart will collapse, just like Chen Sanliang did in the past, and become a useless person."

In this case, it would be better to go out and fight Chen Sanliang. If both sides fight to the death, there might be a glimmer of hope.

Since he will be abolished anyway, he might as well leave a good reputation among the scholars to avoid becoming a laughing stock of the world.

"Chen Sanliang's action is to cut himself off from the world's literary world. How can he be so bold? How dare he do that?" Zhang Chen's eyes were full of horror. After pondering for a moment, he changed his mind and said, "Perhaps at the moment of Han Suzhen's death, Chen Sanliang had already cut himself off from the world's literary world."

"Chen Sanliang is really ruthless and is going crazy!" Zhang Chen thought to himself, "But the human race has suppressed the world for countless thousands of years, and its foundation is extremely deep. How can it be that simple? Chen Sanliang wants to challenge all the Confucian scholars in the world alone, and I am afraid that he will provoke some old guys from Confucianism. Let alone the five teachers in the academy, they are much better than Chen Sanliang in terms of cultural foundation, otherwise Chen Sanliang would not have been defeated in the discussion of Taoism and directly abandoned his Taoism."

"Boy, you are wrong. Do you think Chen Sanliang talks about the human race just to seek revenge? Chen Sanliang is not that narrow-minded!" Just when all kinds of thoughts were flowing in Zhang Chen's mind, the Great Freedom Demon appeared in Zhang Chen's ear and reminded him.

"Huh? Does he have any other purpose?" Zhang Chen was stunned when he heard this.

"It's all your fault!" said the Great Freedom Demon unhappily.

"I caused the trouble? What does it have to do with me?" Zhang Chen's eyes were full of confusion.

"Your phrase 'unity of knowledge and action' made Mr. Wu grasp the essence of it. Now he has achieved the status of Yang God and shared the luck of this path. Mr. Wu occupies the orthodoxy of the academy, so it is not difficult for him to preach the doctrine throughout the world. He has taken away a part of Chen Sanliang's luck. Of course, Chen Sanliang must find a way to reverse the situation and stop Mr. Wu from continuing to plunder the luck of Confucianism, so as to open up the situation within the human race and pass on his own path. When he challenges the major academies, it is also a process of preaching. During this period, countless students will surely be impressed by his knowledge and become his followers." said the Great Freedom Demon.

"You are wrong. Mr. Wu's great principle is 'unity of knowledge and action', while Chen Sanliang's great principle has been changed to 'educating the world'. There is no conflict between the two sides, right?" Zhang Chen couldn't figure it out and there was a hint of confusion in his eyes.

"The fight between the great ways is not that simple. There are only so many Confucianists in the world. The fight between two great ways is a fight between two great ways, which is more cruel than a fight between one great way. If you are not careful, you will end up being uprooted and irretrievable!" said the Great Freedom Demon with a wry smile.

Zhang Chen took a deep breath when he heard this. A thought flashed through his mind: "The unity of knowledge and action is the result of Chen Sanliang's painstaking research for sixty years. Now it has been taken away by Mr. Wu. How can he allow Mr. Wu to become powerful and allow Mr. Wu to steal his fruit and use it as a weapon against him?"

(End of this chapter)