Chapter 30 Ranshan Sect

Chapter 30 Ranshan Sect

Chapter 30 Ranshan Sect

The White Jade Palace in the sky,
Twelve floors and five cities.

The immortal touched my head.
Getting married brings longevity.

These are the world he came from, the four most famous lines in a long poem written by a very famous poet in ancient times.

These days, Li Wuxiang has also wondered what is going on in this world. Finally, he thought that this might be some kind of "parallel universe" - perhaps there was just a deviation at a very distant time point, so the customs and culture are quite similar to where he came from, and even the writing is similar.

But this couldn't explain the two lines of poetry he had just heard! How small was the probability that so many words "just happened" to form these two lines? He didn't know how to calculate it, but he knew it should be so small that it was "absolutely impossible"!
Someone has been here before me? After this thought popped up, he took a few breaths and seemed to feel that the shock just now had subsided a little. That's right... If I can run to this world, maybe others can come too. One of the rituals of accepting disciples in the Ranshan Sect is to recite these two sentences and comb your hair into a Taoist bun. So, could it be that the life story of the ancestor that Zhao Qi was hesitant to talk about just now is strange?
I know too little about this world. After leaving Jinshui, one of my priorities is to form a more detailed impression of this world.

The next morning, Li Wuxiang got up early. He washed himself and revealed his completely white hair, but this time he didn't paint it with charcoal black. If Zhao Qi, a cautious person, didn't notice anything unusual about his hair, then ordinary people shouldn't be able to see it either.

Then he found two newly laid eggs in the chicken coop. He wanted to leave one for Xue Baoping, but he really didn't want to look at the blood vessels in his neck when he saw her, so he drank them all.

When the mist in the sky began to be dispersed by the rising sun, Li Wuxiang arrived at the door of Chen's house.

The Chen family was not as grand as he thought. There was only a tall and spacious gate, no threshold, and two black painted doors that were open. The courtyard inside the gate was very large. A dozen soldiers were harnessing cattle in the yard, probably to plow the land. There were no bricks or stones in the yard, but red soil with crisscrossing wheel tracks. It looked like a large inn used to entertain traveling merchants in ancient times.

Perhaps they had known that he was coming today, so the soldiers did not stop him, but just watched him while they were doing their work. Li Wuxiang glanced at them and found that although these soldiers were short and skinny, they were energetic and relaxed. I think their daily life was not bad, at least they should be able to eat enough. From this point of view, these soldiers were more like the long-term workers of the Chen family who were half soldiers and half farmers, and the Chen family was more like a small landlord in the stage of prosperity, which could not be compared with the big family like Lijiawan that had ruled the local area for more than a hundred years.

He walked into the yard and saw a row of stables and wing houses where the soldiers lived on the left, and an old camphor tree on the right. The bottom of the tree was surrounded by bluestone strips, and people probably sat there. There was a row of hedges as tall as a person between the camphor tree and the wing houses on the right. The saplings were slender and had droopy leaves, which looked like they were newly transplanted. This should be to provide Zhao Qi with a relatively quiet and elegant space in the yard.

Two people were standing at the entrance of the main hall, watching him from a distance. One was a middle-aged woman with a friendly but not exaggerated smile on her face, looking dignified and generous, but her eyes looked at him very carefully. She must be Chen Xiu's mother. Chen Xiu was behind her, smiling uncontrollably. When she saw him, she whispered a few words to her mother, then waved to Li Wuxiang, who stopped and bowed to the two.

At this time, Chen Xiu pointed to the left again. Li Wuxiang looked over and saw two horses in the stable, with three people serving them. Two of them were town soldiers, and the other was an old-looking man who seemed to be teaching the town soldiers how to cut hay carefully. This should be Chen Xin, the head of the Chen family. When Li Wuxiang looked over, Chen Xin also turned his head to look at him, smiled at him and nodded. Li Wuxiang bowed again and was about to go over to greet him, but Chen Xiu's mother waved to him from a distance and pointed to the wing where Zhao Qi lived.

Li Wuxiang understood that she wanted him to go meet Zhao Qi first. It seemed that she knew that Zhao Qi had a strange personality and was afraid that he would pick on her.

This family of three left a very good impression on him. He smiled gratefully and walked towards Zhao Qi's residence.

When he walked to Zhao Qi's door, he could still feel the gaze behind him. He stopped and listened quietly. He heard a tiny movement inside the door that ordinary people could not detect. It was the sound of clothes rubbing against the door. It must be Zhao Qi standing at the door.

So he said in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft: "Master, your disciple Li Jiye is here to see you."

Zhao Qi didn't say anything, so Li Wuxiang stopped talking too. He stood outside with his hands hanging down and his head slightly lowered.

After a while, he heard even lighter footsteps from the door, and could almost imagine Zhao Qi's appearance - slowly lifting his legs and tiptoeing back to the chair in the room and sitting down. Li Wuxiang smiled in his heart. Zhao Qi was quite interesting. It seemed that he wanted to ask him to play the same trick as Cheng Men Li Xue. He must have never accepted a disciple, and was afraid that his dignity would be looked down upon by his disciples, so he deliberately kept silent. Thinking about it again, maybe he came to see him yesterday, and he would regret it in the middle of the night, thinking that he was too rash and impulsive...

But now that I think about it carefully, Zhao Qi does seem to be a little anxious about accepting a disciple. Why?
Li Wuxiang stood there for another quarter of an hour, then whispered again, "Master, your disciple Li Jiye is here to see you."

There was no movement inside the door, but Li Wuxiang heard the slight sound of flipping pages. It must be that Zhao Qi himself was bored and started reading. So he remained still, slowly trying to figure out Zhao Qi in his mind. He looked to be in his thirties, much older than he was now, and could even be his father in this era. He used to think he was cautious, but after these few encounters, Li Wuxiang's evaluation of him has changed a little.

Zhao Qi's caution didn't seem to come from rational considerations, but from his lack of confidence in himself, fear of being looked down upon, or to put it bluntly, his low self-esteem and sensitivity. In his previous life, Li Wuxiang had met many such people, and he himself was one of them. He knew too well how to make such people feel welcome and have a good impression of him.

So he waited quietly for a while. Then the sun rose, and he did not feel hot, but warmed by the sun, which was much more comfortable than at night.

Then he heard a click behind the door, as if a pen had fallen to the ground. It must have been Zhao Qi who accidentally knocked it over.

There was an awkward silence inside and outside the door for a while, and then Li Wuxiang said for the third time: "Master, your disciple Li Jiye is here to see you."

After a sound of footsteps, Zhao Qi opened the door: "How long have you been waiting?"

"It is reasonable for the disciple to wait as long as he wants."

Zhao Qi coughed and said, "Do you know why I... your teacher asked you to wait so long?"

Li Wuxiang immediately found a very good reason for him: "Master wants to test his disciple's patience."

Zhao Qi hummed: "Not bad, you are very perceptive and patient. Come in."

Li Wuxiang walked into the room and closed the door gently. Zhao Qi's room was simply furnished, with a bed, a long table by the window, a chair, and a small round table and two round stools by the gable. The walls must have been newly painted, and there was a leather backpack with diagonal buckles, a long sword, and a whisk hanging on it. The floor should also have been newly paved, the tiles were very new, with only some dust accumulated in the gaps.

Zhao Qi sat down on the chair, and Li Wuxiang stood one step away from him with his hands down. The two were silent for a while, and Zhao Qi coughed again and said, "This is also the first time for me to accept a disciple. As the saying goes, the master leads you to the door, but the practice is up to you. Why don't you tell me first, how much do you know about the practice?"

Li Wuxiang thought about it and scratched his head: "Master, I actually don't know anything."

Zhao Qi was stunned: "What does it mean to know nothing?"

"That is... apart from knowing the meditation method, I don't know anything else, such as what to do and where to go, and other things... what other sects are like and who is in them."

Zhao Qi frowned and said, "You should know the Eight Mysterious Sects, right?"

"Well, I only know that there is a sect called Babu Xuanjiao." Zhao Qi closed his eyes and opened them again, sighing: "Babu Xuanjiao is not one sect, but eight sects - how come you don't even know this?"

Li Wuxiang couldn't help but smile in his heart. This was Zhao Qi's first time accepting a disciple, and he was already feeling a little impatient.

He immediately acted panicked: "Master, don't blame me. There are really some things... Well, Master, you see, when my family was still here, we hired a new worker and needed to write a contract. After it was written, we asked him to put his fingerprints on it. But that person didn't even know where to put his fingerprints. I thought he was a bit stupid at the time. But later I found out that he was actually quite smart, but because it was his first time seeing a contract, he didn't know what to do... Now I should be similar to that person in front of Master. Master, you are knowledgeable. Many things that Master thinks are common sense have never been seen by mortals like me, so I really don't know them."

Zhao Qi's expression eased, and when he heard the word "mortal", a hint of pride flashed across his face. He sighed again, "Okay. Then I will start from the beginning and explain it to you bit by bit."

He hesitated for a moment, as if he was very reluctant to say what he was about to say, but he had to say it: "What I am going to tell you next is the views of the Eight Mysterious Sects themselves, and at the same time, it is also the views of the dioceses in this world - you know the dioceses, right? Um - the views of the mortals in the dioceses. Please listen to it for now, and I will tell you the views of my sect and other sects later."

"The Eight Mysterious Sects are eight sects that worship eight spiritual gods. The True Form Dao worships the Five Mountains True Form Emperor who governs the mountains; the Mysterious Dark Dao worships the Six Duks Mysterious Dark Emperor who governs the rivers, seas and lakes; the Sun Dao worships the East God Sun Emperor who governs Qianyang; the Taiyin Dao worships the Suyao Taiyin Emperor who governs Kunyin; the Baosheng Dao worships the Keci Baosheng Emperor who governs the life and growth of all things; the Five Senses Dao worships the Haotian Five Senses Emperor who governs the five elements of heaven and earth."

"These six sects have many disciples, and the areas they govern cover more than six states in the world. These places are what you call dioceses. They claim to be the orthodox sects of the world's Xuanmen, and think that they, together with the Netherworld Earth Mother who rules the underworld and is worshipped by the Netherworld Dao, have already controlled all the great ways in this world. They regard the remaining sects as unorthodox sects, and want to conquer them as long as they have a little spare power. Didn't Jinshui Town cause trouble for the Xuan Sect a few decades ago? I guess it was the practitioners of the Sun Dao who wanted to occupy Jinshui as a diocese. In the future, if you travel around the world and meet people from the six Xuan Sects I mentioned earlier, you must be careful."

Li Wuxiang frowned and thought for a while: "Master, then do I not need to be careful about the Netherworld?"

"The Netherworld Sect is also one of the Eight Mysterious Sects. But there are very few descendants of the Netherworld Sect, and no one knows where the temple is. They don't like to meddle in other people's business, so if you meet them, as long as you don't provoke them, you don't need to be afraid." Zhao Qi breathed a sigh of relief, and saw that he had finished talking about everything he didn't want to mention, and leaned back in his chair, "Are you thinking, these are only seven, what about the eighth of the Eight Mysterious Sects?"

"Yes, I am so itchy."

Zhao Qi laughed, "Okay, listen, the eighth of the eight sects worships the Emperor Taiyi of the East, who governs the world. No matter how little you know, you should know that a long time ago there was a dynasty called 'Ye', right? The nine provinces today were divided during the Ye Dynasty, and all the rules, etiquette, and customs in the world today were also passed down during the Ye Dynasty. The emperor of the Ye Dynasty, whose name was Li Ye, achieved enlightenment, ascended to become an immortal, and attained the Great Dao, becoming the Emperor Taiyi of the East."

When he said this, he paused for a moment. Li Wuxiang knew what he was thinking and immediately asked, "Which sect worships this emperor?"

A smile appeared on Zhao Qi's face, looking somewhat sarcastic. He snorted softly: "It's hard to say which sect it is. According to the Eight Mysterious Sects, there is a group of people in the world who like to practice swordsmanship and call themselves living swordsmen. This group of people is considered the orthodox sect of Donghuang Taiyi. But in fact, this matter has many twists and turns.

"When the Ye Dynasty was still in existence, the Taiyi sect worshipped Donghuang Taiyi, and it was the state religion. Later, the six of the Eight Mysterious Sects I mentioned earlier clashed with the Taiyi sect, and a great battle caused unrest in the world, which led to the fall of the Ye Dynasty. The Taiyi sect was defeated, so it disbanded. The practitioners of the Taiyi sect were good at using swords, and the number of disciples gradually decreased. Therefore, the remaining group of swordsmen were considered to have inherited the Taiyi sect's law. Until today, the six sects are still hunting down those swordsmen. They like to say that they are orthodox, so let them say it."

Zhao Qi shook his head slightly again and looked at Li Wuxiang: "In fact, the Taiyi Taoist monks at that time were not only good at using swords, but also good at turning the virtual into the real. Have you heard of some magical rumors? For example, some strange people drew a handful of salt on paper, shook the paper, and the salt fell down? Or someone drew a little man on paper, and then blew air, and the little man came to life? Or someone drew people and city scenes on a scroll, and it turned out to be a lifelike little world? Let me tell you, these are all the means of the Taiyi Taoist monks at that time, this is the real immortal art. And now, this lineage of Taiyi has been passed down to our Ranshan School."

Li Wuxiang finally heard what he wanted. Zhao Kui put more than a hundred people in a small hollow brick, forming a small world of his own, saying that he wanted to "refine Taiyi". He should use the method of Ranshan Sect mentioned by Zhao Qi, but it may be more sophisticated. Zhao Qi's statement about Ranshan Sect must have a lot of self-boasting, but if Ranshan Sect really has a little bit of connection with what he said, and Zhao Kui is really the leader of Ranshan Sect, then his original guess is correct - for ordinary people, he is also a big shot.

So...did he really die so easily? Killed by Xue Baoping's bowl of chicken blood?

Zhao Qi smiled and said, "Why, now you know the importance of a disciple of the Ranshan Sect?"

Li Wuxiang immediately came back to his senses: "Master, then... can I also practice these magic arts in the future?"

When he said this, he was trying to cover up his moment of daze and make Zhao Qi feel that he was shocked by those immortal methods. But after he finished speaking, he found that Zhao Qi's expression was a little strange - the corners of his mouth first slightly pressed down, his brows slightly tightened, and then his eyes looked at him and relaxed for a very short moment, and then he smiled and said: "These are all advanced methods. If you work hard, you will be able to do it one day."

A thought popped up in Li Wuxiang's mind - Zhao Qi probably didn't know how to use those magical methods he mentioned. Because when he mentioned those things, he showed a moment of displeasure and disappointment. And the look he gave him afterwards was even weirder, a look that seemed a little guilty. Was it because he didn't know how to use those methods, or was it because of something else?
Zhao Qi straightened his body again and raised his voice a little: "Let me tell you about other sects. In addition to the Eight Mysterious Sects, the others can also be divided into two categories. One category is the sects with magic letters. The magic letters were passed down from the Ye Dynasty. At that time, the world was in chaos. In addition to the Eight Mysterious Sects, there were many independent cultivators who were scheming and killing each other, causing chaos in the world. When the world gradually calmed down from the chaos of the demise of the Ye Dynasty, some top masters gathered together and held an alliance meeting."

"In that alliance, masters from various sects worked together to refine thirty-six sets of magic scrolls. The magic scrolls are the invisible and intangible 'Dao Luck'. With them, one can gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in a place, transforming the originally ordinary Feng Shui into a blessed land, and thus establish a sect. Since then, except for the Eight Sects of Mysterious Sect, any sect that has the magic scrolls can be called an orthodox sect. Although they cannot be said to be of the same blood and help each other, at least they will not easily attack each other, which can ensure the temporary peace of the world."

Li Wuxiang thought for a moment and said, "Master, then our Ranshan Sect..."

Zhao Qi snorted and waved his hand: "Of course there are those who have the seal, and they are authentic. But the world is full of ups and downs, there are always times of prosperity and decline, honor and disgrace, and it doesn't mean that you can sit back and relax with the seal. Isn't it true that the world is still ruled by the strong? In recent years, there have been cases where authentic sects with seals were killed or robbed. So, Master tells you that you have to be careful when walking in the world. If the time is not right, then don't fight for the title of Xuanmen's authentic sect. Many sects cannot be called authentic without seals, but with many strong people under their tutelage, can't they still be famous for a while?"

Li Wuxiang nodded obediently: "Disciple will remember this. Then, Master, we in Ranshan worship Donghuang Taiyi, what about other sects? Do they worship gods like the Kitchen God?"

Zhao Qi said reluctantly, "Although many spiritual gods such as the Kitchen God and Siming Zhenjun attained enlightenment early, they were originally governed by Taiyi. After Taiyi's fall, the mortals outside the diocese believed in these gods and were denounced as heretics by the six sects. Only those sects and independent cultivators outside the thirty-six sects would worship these spiritual gods."

Li Wuxiang wanted to ask again whether the other thirty-five "authentic" sects also worshipped Donghuang Taiyi, but seeing Zhao Qi's expression, he knew there was no need to ask. When he first heard Zhao Qi mention Taiyi Dao and the legal system, he thought that although he didn't know what the Ranshan Sect was like now, it was actually very important. But now that he heard the rest, he felt that he had completely figured out what was going on.

To put it simply, during the Ye Dynasty, there were eight major sects in the world. The eighth sect, Taiyi Dao, declined, and its disciples scattered everywhere, fighting among themselves, all vying for the title of the only orthodox sect - this should be what Zhao Qi had mentioned before, the chaotic period after the demise of the Ye Dynasty.

After fighting for a while, this group of people finally felt that this was not a solution, so they held a meeting and decided that everyone should stop fighting and instead say that all the thirty-six sects have inherited the Taiyi Dao lineage and that they are all authentic. Therefore, the thirty-six authentic sects should all worship Donghuang Taiyi.

However, the other seven sects did not seem to agree with their views. They only said that the group of "swordsmen" mentioned by Zhao Qi were the true inheritors of the Taiyi Taoist tradition. It was not known whether there was any real inside story or whether they were just trying to continue to stir up internal strife.

Combined with what Zhao Qi said before, "The world is full of ups and downs, there are always times of rise and fall, honor and disgrace. It doesn't mean that you can sit back and relax just because you have a calligraphy work. Nowadays, the strong are still respected in the world", as well as some details mentioned by Chen Xiu, Li Wuxiang had a general idea of ​​the Ranshan School. Although it was one of the thirty-six orthodox sects, these "orthodox" sects seemed to have had good and bad times in the past three thousand years. For example, the wealthy families in ancient times, today, perhaps many of them are no longer as good as those inferior sects mentioned by Zhao Qi.

As for the Ranshan Sect, it should have been extinct long ago. Zhao Kui became the sect leader before he even formed his elixir, and he has been missing for more than a decade, and his disciples have all scattered, leaving only Zhao Qi to come. It's quite pitiful to think about it this way.

This is great, at least Zhao Kui is dead, so the world won’t be shocked.

　The chapters explaining the settings aren't particularly interesting, but they have to be written because they are necessary.

　　But if I think about it again, wouldn’t it be a good idea to combine these two chapters into one chapter of 6,000 words?

　　
　
(End of this chapter)