On the Avenue.

Chapter 190 Chen Shi Passes the Imperial Examination
On the Minjiang River, the water is rippling with waves, like white scales, one layer upon another. From a distance, the Minjiang River looks like a giant dragon, and the waves are the dragon's scales.

A pleasure boat was floating on the river. The wind blew the sails round and made the boat sail very fast on the river.

The boatwoman was eating melon seeds and looking at Chen Shi and Li Tianqing with a smile.

Chen Shi smiled and asked, "Are the melon seeds delicious?"

"Try it!" The boat girl grabbed a handful and put it in front of him.

Li Tianqing hurriedly tugged at the corner of Chen Shi's clothes.

These are two escaped ghosts.

Can I eat the melon seeds they give me?

Chen Shi took the melon seeds and cracked one. It had a five-spice flavor and was stir-fried with dried tangerine peel. The crispy aroma was mixed with the fragrance of the dried tangerine peel, which was very soothing to the throat. It was unlike other melon seeds that would make your throat dry if you ate too much.

"Is it delicious?" the boatwoman asked with a smile.

Chen Shi praised: "It's delicious. Why did you two escape from Wangchuan?"

Li Tianqing's heart suddenly rose to his throat and he secretly groaned. Is this topic even worth bringing up?
When they arrived at the Minjiang ferry, Chen Shi saw the pleasure boat and insisted on boarding their boat. Li Tianqing was a little reluctant, but he couldn't persuade Chen Shi, so he had to board the boat. Unexpectedly, after boarding the boat, Chen Shi would actually ask such a question!
There were other scholars on the boat, who were also waiting for the autumn examination to fail and were returning to Xinxiang. Most of the monks of the Cao Lao Society were killed or injured, and even the hall master died. There were not many boats on the Minjiang River, so they could only take this pleasure boat back to Xinxiang.

The boat girl laughed and said, "Why else? We can't make it anymore. Someone is causing trouble in the underworld. Not only did he go there once or twice, but he also caused trouble every day. He also kidnapped someone's soul. We are the ones who did it, so we have to take responsibility. Staying in the underworld is a dead end, so we had to escape."

Chen Shi blinked and asked, "Who dares to cause such a disturbance in the underworld? Also, have the abducted souls been found?"

“I found it.”

The boat girl was cracking melon seeds carefully, but the melon seed flesh between her teeth had been eaten, leaving only the shell. She was still cracking while looking at Chen Shi, smiling and saying, "The underworld is not peaceful now. The Lord of Justice has disappeared. What can we do if we find him? Even if we bring him back, who can vindicate us? So we just have to wait."

She looked at Chen Shi, as if the melon seed shells between her teeth were hateful, and she cracked them over and over again.

Chen Shi chatted with her casually, and asked curiously: "Where is the great master Qingtian? Was he plotted against, or was his power seized by someone? Or did he get lost?"

"do not know."

The boat girl was also worried and sighed, "So many people are looking for him..."

The boatman coughed, and the boatwoman became stern and stopped talking about this topic.

Chen Shi looked towards the shore and saw many strange people on both sides of the Minjiang River flapping their big ears, flying and recording, as if they were recording what was happening on the ship.

"Heaven Listener!"

Chen Shi was also dignified. "Are the people listening in these days monitoring me, or are they monitoring the fugitive ghost couple?"

Some of the listeners these days are familiar faces, who appeared near the main hall of Hongshan Hall some time ago.

Their ears are like wings, and their bodies hang down like small bean sprouts, but they are very agile and can fly across the river and even over the mountains.

While flying, you can also write and draw in the notebook.

These guys are annoying, but if we kill them, it will only attract more listeners.

The boat girl retracted her gaze and said with a smile, "A huge body limb washed up at the mouth of the Minjiang River recently. It was two or three miles long and extremely thick. The scales hanging on it were larger than our boat, which attracted many people to see it. We also went to see it. There were ghost lights on the scales, and many dead souls were imprisoned in each scale."

Chen Shi's heart was slightly moved: "Could it be that the Whisperer in the Sea was injured by Mazu?"

He called the sea monster that caused him to vomit the Sea Whisperer. The Whisperer's power was immense, but unfortunately it was still severely injured by Mazu and had to escape.

Unexpectedly, the attack from the Queen caused it to break a limb!
"Can you two take us to the mouth of the Minjiang River?"

Chen Shi said, "I'll pay more!"

The boat girl chuckled and said, "I know you have money, but unfortunately you found out too late. I heard that a Taoist priest came and took the thing away. You will get nothing if you go there."

Chen Shi secretly said what a pity.

If one could snatch a scale from such a powerful being, it would probably be worth a fortune.

He ate melon seeds and chatted with the boatwoman. They had a peaceful journey. The boatwoman took them to Xinxiang and moored them in the dock. Chen Shi paid the fare, got off the boat with a group of Xinxiang scholars, and waved goodbye to the boatwoman.

They got on the wooden cart and drove towards Qianyang Mountain.

Li Tianqing said: "This boatman and his daughter are most likely targeting you. Xiao Shi, you'd better stay away from them!"

Chen Shi smiled and said, "Maybe they are looking for another person. Maybe there was also a soul that was rescued back then, and they just happened to be the ghosts guarding that person."

Li Tianqing argued: "How could such a coincidence happen?"

Chen Shi laughed loudly, patted his shoulder and said, "How about that? Can you beat them, or can I beat them? If they wanted to attack me, they would have done it long ago. Why wait until we are on the boat?"

Li Tianqing admired him very much and said with a smile: "You are quite frank. Since you cannot participate in the Autumn Examination this time, what are your plans after returning to the village?"

Chen Shi said dimly, "Go buy various medicinal herbs and supervise you in making the elixir. Then sell the elixir and become a local rich man."

Li Tianqing's face turned dark.

The wooden cart drove into Qianyang Mountain. Chen Shi looked back and saw that the heavenly listeners were following them with their ears flapping. They would write down whatever they talked about.

Chen Shi frowned slightly. Why did the listener target him again these days?

During the last stone ship incident, he was targeted by the Heaven Listener, but later the Heaven Listener disappeared, so I guess he was cleared of suspicion.

Why are you targeting him again this time?
"Could it be the Mazu Temple incident? But, in the Mazu Temple incident, shouldn't the people being targeted be Granny Sha and the others? Why are they targeting me?" Chen Shi was quite puzzled.

When they returned to Huangpo Village, Grandma Yuzhu saw him and said happily, "Master Xiucai is back! Master Xiucai went to take the imperial examination. Has he become a juren now? Don't light a fire tonight. Come to my house for dinner!"

Chen Shi said hesitantly: "The governor was killed, the education commissioner also died, the autumn examination was aborted, and no one took it."

Grandma Yuzhu asked, "Are you still a scholar now?"

Chen Shi nodded.

Grandma Yuzhu no longer mentioned going to her house for dinner and asked, "Why did the governor die?"

"I heard from others that I killed him," Chen Shi said honestly. He rarely lied in front of his fellow villagers.

……

The news of Chen Shi's return spread quickly. Several families in the village had originally planned to match Chen Shi with a man, but when they heard that he had killed the governor and had failed the imperial examination, they gave up the idea. When they saw Chen Shi, they lazily greeted him, "You're back, scholar? When will you become a bandit?"

Another villager said, "I have a nephew who is a bandit in the mountains. I don't know if he is dead or not. I can introduce him to you during the New Year."

that is it.

At night, Chen Shi went from house to house to borrow firewood, rice, oil and salt. The villagers were not very enthusiastic, as they were probably waiting for him to get into trouble and become a bandit, or be sent to the county government to be beheaded.

"Scholar, hurry up and find a woman and a son to leave a descendant for your Chen family!"

Old Lady Wuzhu asked, "What do you think of Widow Wang from our village?"

In the next few days, there was something wrong with the way Widow Wang looked at Chen Shi.

Chen Shi was happy to be quiet. As usual, he first burned incense for his grandfather and godmother, and then paid his respects to Zhu Xiucai. When Zhu Xiucai heard that the governor, the general and other high-ranking officials had died, resulting in the cancellation of the Gongzhou Autumn Examination, he couldn't help but sigh and said, "It's bad luck, not your lack of talent. Why did the governor die?"

He was somewhat indignant: "It's fine that two governors of Xinxiang died, but how could a governor of Gongzhou also die? And so many high-ranking officials were buried with him!"

"I heard that I killed him." Chen Shi was not sure.

He had heard about this matter from someone, but when he inquired carefully, he found that the person who told him about it was very secretive and did not dare to talk about it.

Zhu Xiucai was also stunned and said, "Don't blame yourself. We still have the next autumn exam. If you fail this time, you can wait another three years. Gold will always shine. With your talent, it would be God's fault if you don't pass the exam!"

Chen Shi felt a little better.

Those day listeners also followed them to Huangpo Village, hanging on the trees outside the village, or squatting on the rocks, constantly listening to Chen Shi's movements.

"The boatman and his daughter are keeping watch, and these guys are monitoring us. How can we live?"

Chen Shi was filled with hatred, but thinking that killing them would only attract more listeners, he had to give up.

The next day, Li Tianqing listed the medicinal materials needed to refine the Resurrection Pill, and Chen Shi went to the county town to purchase the medicinal materials. However, two of the medicinal materials needed for the Resurrection Pill were very precious and were not available in the county town's pharmacy, so they had to be transferred from the provincial capital.

He paid a deposit and waited two or three days before all the herbs were ready.

He went to Juxian Tower again and met Shao Jing, the owner of Juxian Tower. When he talked about alchemy, he said, "I want to ask for a good alchemy furnace."

Shao Jing smiled and said, "It's easy. I have all kinds of alchemy furnaces here."

Chen Shi selected an old Bagua furnace in the Juxian Tower. The alchemist who refined it was very careful. He drew all kinds of talisman patterns and Bagua patterns for adjusting the furnace fire over and over again, and they had already been integrated into the furnace body.

Alchemy is a delicate job, especially the alchemy furnace. For example, to adjust the fire in the furnace, it is necessary to activate the Xun Gua to blow air. How to activate it and how much to activate it are all very particular.

If you want to temper it, you need to adjust the Zhen hexagram and temper it with thunder.

Because it is so complicated, good alchemists are extremely rare.

Chen Shi knew nothing about this, but fortunately Li Tianqing had considerable accomplishments in this area.

This old Bagua furnace was quite expensive, costing Chen Shi eight hundred taels of silver. Shao Jing smiled and said, "This is a treasure of an old alchemist. He is old and can't control the temperature, so he put it up for sale with me, hoping to earn some money for his retirement."

Chen Shi paid the money and asked, "If I refine a very rare elixir, can Juxianlou sell it for me?"

Shao Jing said: "If you want to consign, I can do it for you at Juxianlou. As for the elixir, it also needs to be of good quality to be sold. If the quality is not high, the value is not very high, and not many people will buy it."

Chen Shi thanked him and left.

Back in Huangpo Village, Chen Shi took down the herbs and the old Bagua furnace and handed them over to Li Tianqing. These herbs and the alchemy furnace alone had spent all the money he earned from felling the mountain.

Li Tianqing took a bath, changed his clothes, and calmed his mind until his heart was as clear as the sky, blue and empty without a trace of dust. Only then did he begin to refine the elixir.

Chen Shi was also quite nervous, as his entire fortune depended on Li Tianqing.

If he fails in refining the elixir, he will be penniless. If he succeeds, he will be the rich man Chen!

Li Tianqing used his own golden elixir as a guide to activate the elixir fire and placed it in the Bagua furnace. He then formed seals with his hands, and various seals and elixir formulas kept changing, which was extremely clever and accurate.

Chen Shi felt that watching him make the elixir was like appreciating art, which was breathtaking, so he stopped worrying and continued to busy himself with his own things.

He believed that with Li Tianqing's ability, he could definitely refine the soul-returning pill.

More than ten days had passed like this. One day, many carriages suddenly arrived at Huangpo Village. More than a hundred Jinyiwei and soldiers in full armor got off the carriages one by one and asked the villagers, "Does Chen Shi live here?"

The villagers had never seen such a scene before and were frightened silly. Grandma Yuzhu waved her hand hurriedly, signaling Yuzhu to run over and inform Chen Shi, telling him that government officials were coming and to run quickly.

Someone recognized the senior official in the lead and asked in surprise, "It's the newly appointed governor of Xinxiang Province and a group of senior officials. Why are they here?"

"They must be here to capture Chen Shi!"

The villagers were in a panic and were looking around. The governor of Xinxiang Province found out the way to Chen Shi's home and clapped his hands. Some yamen runners beat gongs and drums, played vocal music, and walked towards Chen Shi's home in a joyous mood.

"It doesn't look like they are here to catch a murderer, but rather a happy occasion!"

The villagers asked the Jinyiwei who came with them, and one of them smiled and said, "Your village has brought honor to the ancestors! Mr. Chen Shi from your village has passed the imperial examination and ranked first in Gongzhou Province! From now on, he will be Chen Jieyuan!"

The villagers were confused. Wasn’t it said that all the officials in Gongzhou were killed by Chen Shi?

Even the autumn examination was not held.

How did you suddenly pass the imperial examination?

And he was the top scorer!

Don’t you need to take an exam to pass the imperial examination?
"Chen Shi passed the imperial examination, and our Xinxiang Province is also proud of it. So the governor brought us and these newly promoted officials from Xinxiang Province to congratulate Mr. Chen and meet him at the same time." said the Jinyiwei.

——A typhoon is coming to Haikou, 17th level, but it is still th or th level at the moment, and it will be th level at night, and the power may go out at any time. The building I live in is shaking, swaying back and forth, almost like a cradle, and I feel a little dizzy and a little scared.

(End of this chapter)