Pretending To Be A Boss

Tang Feiji was speaking, all the while staring intently at the Taotie.

It was at this moment that Bai Mansheng also said:

"He won't last much longer. You should leave this place now."

Even though the most rational course of action right now was to quickly open a transport rift and return, Tang Xian didn't do so.

He had considered it, but quickly dismissed the idea.

"Tang Feiji, I'm relieved to hear you say that. But you must change your strategy for the upcoming battle," he said.

"How do I do that?"

"Use a speed faster than it can manage, get behind it."

"I can no longer outpace it now."

"I will help you. You need to seize the right opportunity."

Tang Xian stepped forward.

Both the Taotie and the Canglong seemed to be looking for a chance to crush the opponent with a single blow.

At this time, a voice suddenly distracted the Taotie's attention.

"The colors of the six palaces fade, but a turn of her head, a smile, breeds a hundred charms."

Almost as if by instinct, upon hearing these words, the Taotie immediately responded:

"From Bai Juyi, 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow.'"

"Very well, then…" Tang Xian deliberately drew out his tone.

In that instant, Tang Feiji had an epiphany!

For the Taotie's attention had now shifted to Tang Xian.

Tang Feiji held nothing back, his dragon form flitted away, triggering a swift storm that howled past!

In a flash, he reached behind the Taotie, leaving a deep, searing scratch!

"You know this poem by Bai Juyi is called 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow', but do you know how many lines it has, how many words? From what time does it originate, and where was it written? How old was Bai Juyi at that time? Who was the emperor of the Tang Dynasty?"

The Taotie knew the answers to these questions but simply had no time to respond.

For at this moment, Tang Feiji's onslaught was too fierce!

The Taotie realized this was a trick of the enemy!

It forced itself to focus on the battle at hand.

Its combat power was already overwhelming the Canglong; it had nothing to fear!

But Tang Xian was like a devil incarnate.

"You're so foolish. The poem has exactly eight hundred forty characters, not counting punctuation and title. It was composed in the year 806 AD, that is, the first year of Yuanhe when Bai Juyi served as the County Magistrate of Zhouzhi, written in his own home. It seems your knowledge is not profound at all; I had actually planned to quiz you on another poem," he said.

The Taotie was in extreme discomfort.

And in that instant, it was hit repeatedly by Tang Feiji.

Watching this scene, Tang Xian seemed indifferent, as if he truly wanted to engage the literate demon in a battle of wits well into the night.

He shook his head and sighed:

"Is this all there is, is this all there is."

In fact, from the beginning of the battle, Tang Xian remembered that the Taotie had recited a total of seven lines of poetry in the brief skirmish, always adding a source for each.

Apart from his friends like Bai Manshen, Qing JiuYu, and Tang Feiji, Tang Xian always classified other creatures into edible and inedible animals.

In his eyes, the Taotie was no different from the hellhound or even a Husky.

All were capable of developing a conditioned reflex.

This Taotie had established a conditioned reflex for itself, having to recite the source whenever it heard a line of poetry.

And if one failed to speak, or someone else said it, it probably felt as anxious as a person with OCD.

In fact, the behavior of having to say the source after every line of poetry was itself a manifestation of OCD.

But Tang Xian wouldn't admit it.

Essentially, he didn't believe that the Taotie could suffer from diseases that only higher sentient humans would have.

In any case, leaving a speech half-finished, or forcibly dividing what should be a complete part into two stages, was extremely uncomfortable for the Taotie.

"Never mind, I'll give you another chance. Listen well. 'Though ugliness has feet, the shell is not whole. Seeing you without a mouth, I know you lack men.' Who wrote this?"

This was a riddle poem.

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It was from Su Tai of the Tang Era, strictly speaking, it's a riddle.

Tang Xian knew that the love of showing off meant that not being able to shoot the answer quickly felt extremely uncomfortable.

On this matter, Tang Xian had the most experience.

Like when during chemistry class, he would preempt the physics teacher's anecdote by stating the law it eventually proved.

Or when the math teacher set up a historically famous math problem, and before it was finished, he directly stated the answer numerically.

He had done this so often that the material teachers used to fill class time was often cut short by his few words.

That's why he was never particularly popular with teachers.

Just like at this moment.

When the Taotie wanted to answer the riddle, Tang Xian shook his head and, with a look that said you didn't guess it, right?, he spoke:

"It's the character riddle by Su Tai, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, the character 'yin'. You don't even know this?"

The Taotie was inwardly tormented, wanting to speak, but Tang Xian gave it no chance.

Tang Feiji's attacks grew stronger and stronger.

The dragon's claw, like a sharp sword, sliced through the Taotie's back defenses.

The scale of victory began to slowly tilt again!

Tang Xian didn't stop there, Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan verses, Chu ci, Book of Songs, Analects. He didn't pause, bombarding them in turn.

Every time the Taotie was about to speak the answer, he would preempt with a look of "Oh my god, you didn't know?" and mock.

Over the centuries, the Taotie had eaten countless people, how many tens of thousands of lines of poetry had it spoken?

It was always the one to state the source.

But this time, that damn devilish boy was always one step ahead.

It felt as miserable as an OCD sufferer completing a jigsaw puzzle only to find, towards the end, that it was missing a T-shaped piece slightly left of center.

Or as if an OCD patient who was used to the neighbor's chicken crowing three times every morning, only to wake one day to hear it crow just twice!