Start from Wusheng

Chapter 787: About to Enter Beijing
Traveling by water is fast, but the scenery along the coast is a bit dull as the days go by.

Suddenly one day, "The capital is almost here."

Everyone on the boat then realized that they had unknowingly traveled through more than a dozen states from north to south and had entered the eight Zhili states that protected the capital.

Many states along the way were still in turmoil, and even some cities along the river could be seen fighting and burning. But with the protection of Grandmaster Zhou Nanwang, the group finally escaped unharmed.

Zhou You originally thought that with his strong martial arts ability, he would have no problem reaching Dijing safely despite the bumpy ride.

After this trip, I finally realized how dangerous the outside world is.

There is a river monster hiding in the water, buried in the mud and lurking motionlessly. When it sees a boat on the surface of the water, it opens its mouth and jumps out to swallow it.

There are also evil cultivators on the shore who pretend to be injured and ask for help, or pretend to be dying to lure passing ships to ask for help. Once someone is fooled, they will sink the docked ship, kill and rob people on a large scale, and their methods are extremely cruel.

In some places, Buddhism has even become very radical. They block rivers, drain rivers, occupy the original river channels as crematoriums, burn corpses day and night, and hold ceremonies to worship gods.

From time to time, powerful martial arts battles would affect the waterway, both in the middle and late stages. If Zhou Nanwang had not exuded the aura of a master to force the enemies back, the entire river would have been destroyed by the aftermath of the battle.

The river was surging, mixed with broken wood and corpses, and the turbid water was filled with the wreckage of capsized ships.

Zhou You finally determined that unless one has the strength of a master, one should not easily think about traveling around the world. A powerful martial art like the Qi Tianmen could only travel freely because of the connections of the aristocratic families in various places.

By the way, I will have the opportunity to meet the Qi family again when I go to Beijing. I wonder if those old friends are still there?
When they were about to enter the waterway within the Dijing area, they encountered a medium-sized ship along the way, and the passengers were Zhou Nanwang's acquaintances.

A master of painting and one of the Four Southern Masters, Chong Buer is famous for his interesting depictions of insects.

Chong Buer is an interesting old man with a long and thin beard that looks very much like a cricket's antennae. Although he is one of the best painters in the world, he is not arrogant at all when dealing with people.

He smiles at everyone and can chat about any topic.

Chong Buer and Zhou Nanwang have a close relationship. This time he left Beijing to collect folk songs in other places. On the way, they met and stopped to chat.

"It's good that you're back now. Dijing has been quite noisy these days, and the Zhou family also needs you to calm the situation down."

Chong Buer was holding a gourd in his arms, which contained his pet insect.

This artist Yang Cong is different from poison warriors and wizards. He does not pursue strong fighting power or fierce poison, but rather seeks to make the lines of insects slender and interesting, and blending them into one with nature.

He pursues the beauty of insects rather than their lethality.

Zhou Nanwang chatted with him for a while and gave the opportunity to the younger generation.

Zhou You found that several guards were very active, especially Cao Mo'ang and Jian Xiaocao. They wanted to ask about tattoo masters.

"Master Chong, please tell me which hand wrote this seal script on my body?"

Cao Mo'ang revealed the seal characters on his body. Chong Bu'er looked at it with a serious expression. He reached out to touch the seal characters and found that the lines and textures were naturally integrated without any traces of artificial carving.

Probing deeper, we found that it coexisted peacefully with the crisscrossing blood vessels and muscle fibers, without any abruptness.

"This is what an expert did!"

Chong Buer sighed, "None of the tattoo masters I know have this kind of style."

"The seal script style should be from the Northern School. Hmm, I heard that there is a Taoist master named Fu Ji in the Northern Golden Immortal Sect."

Zhou You looked at him in surprise. This old man had a very sharp eye and could tell the origin of the seal script school at a glance.

That's right, the seal script that Zhou You's incarnation learned was from Master Zeng, the Taoist master of Fu Ji. Cao Mo'ang explained, "The one who completed the seal script for me was definitely not Taoist master Fu Ji, and he had already committed many evil deeds and died at the hands of Lord Niu."

"Oh!"

Chong Bu Er took another closer look and shook his head, "I don't know him, I don't know him!"

Jian Xiaocao's blood was boiling, and lines on his face intertwined, showing the seal character "bow". "Master Chong, please take a look."

The seal characters of both of them were written by the same person, and what they wanted was to find that "benefactor".

"It's not that the ink is not good, her handwriting is delicate like a woman's, not so vigorous and powerful. She is also not like the Western Palace Master, who has his own unique mark at the end of the seal script, but this one doesn't have..."

"Well, they are not the royal masters' special forces. These people serve by your side all year round and it is impossible for them to go out without permission."

"I'm sorry, this is the first time I've seen something like this."

Chong Buer even said to them, "If you find this fellow practitioner one day, could you introduce him to me?"

Well, not only did he not find the answer, but it aroused his interest.

"By the way, the hungry tiger painting on the master's back is also the work of a famous artist."

Jian Xiaocao suddenly said, "Master Chong can help take a look!"

Chong Buer became interested. It was the picture rather than the text, which touched his professional sore spot. He waved his hand hastily, "Let me take a look."

When Zhou You showed the hungry tiger picture behind him, everyone gasped. This...

It turned out that the picture on the paper was a dead object at best, but after being kept on Zhou You's back for a long time and nourished by the blood and essence of his tiger fist, the picture was actually like a living thing.

The strong blood and murderous aura that rushed towards him was as if a real tiger was imprisoned in his body.

No, an ordinary tiger can hardly have even one-tenth of its power. It is at least an extremely ferocious tiger that is close to being a demon.

"Oh, isn't this the work of that old widow Han Yusou?"

Chong Buer could tell at a glance that this painting was the work of Han Yusou, one of the Four Northern Masters. No one in the world could match his skill in painting a tiger. It was real at first glance and could not be faked.

He put his hands in his sleeves and paced back and forth around Zhou You's back, watching in amazement.

"The old widower's craftsmanship is beyond reproach, but this painting of a hungry tiger on a man's back is a work of genius, and is truly rare."

"First, this picture was originally painted on paper, but a master tattooed it on a human body intactly. It is very rare to transplant the fibers of white paper onto the texture of human skin. Only a top master can do it."

"This expert is definitely a top expert among tattoo artists."

"Secondly, the boxing skills you have cultivated are perfectly matched to this picture. The growth and changes in your body size have not deformed it. Instead, they have optimized the picture and made it more three-dimensional and detailed."

Hearing this, Jian Xiaocao and Cao Mo'ang looked at each other and confirmed their guess.

Sure enough, Zhou You met the tattoo artist just like them.

The difference is that what Zhou Zhouyou got was a picture, not seal characters. Perhaps this was related to the concentration of his blood.

Finally, Chong Buer reminded Zhou You, "When you get to Dijing, keep this painting hidden. Don't let it show. I'm reminding you that some high-ranking figures like to collect calligraphy and paintings, and paintings of human skin are the best."

(End of this chapter)