Chapter 173 Talking about Cause and Effect

Chapter 173 Talking about Cause and Effect

Chapter 173 Talking about Cause and Effect

In the evening of the same day, the supervisor in Wangjing received a reply from Her Royal Highness the Princess.

The meaning of the letter was very clear, that is, what Gu Zhuo said was true, and the supervisor was requested to allow him to observe the maintenance and inspection process of the old imperial city's formation.

As for the reason, it is simply the word "cultivation".

The supervisor accepted it without any objection.

Song Jinglun was dissatisfied, but his opinion was not important.

So everything went on as usual.

That night, Gu Zhuo was invited to enter the old imperial palace and began to observe the maintenance process of the old imperial city's formation.

Repairing the formation is a matter that can be troublesome or simple. In previous years, officials of the Imperial Observatory would have handled it simply. However, this time when the director of the Observatory came in person, things naturally became troublesome.

The weathered bluestone slabs were turned over, the beams and pillars of the hall were split open, and the glazed tiles were also lifted up... The formation materials hidden deep inside had begun to lose their luster and no longer had their former glory.

Officials from the Imperial Observatory brought new materials and replaced them carefully, while flames were seen rising between pavilions and towers farther away. It was another group of officials who were making certain changes to the core of the formation in accordance with the supervisor's requirements to prevent the risks brought about by unchanged state.

In reality, it is a tedious, boring and noisy process.

After giving his instructions to his subordinate officials, the supervisor took the hot tea handed to him by Song Jinglun and took a sip slowly.

After doing all this, he seemed unable to bear the fatigue brought by the night, and the wrinkles on his already old face became deeper, as conspicuous as the gullies on the Loess Plateau.

He suddenly asked, "Would you find it boring?"

The person who asked this question was naturally Gu Zhuo.

In the depths of this busy old imperial palace, these two were the only ones who didn't have to really take action. Even Song Jinglun was inevitably involved and couldn't stay out of it and take it easy.

"Fortunately."

Gu Zhuo said calmly: "Isn't cultivation also a boring thing?"

The supervisor seemed surprised, smiled, and said, "Few people hold this view, especially young people like you."

Gu Zhuo was too lazy to respond to this question. He picked up the formation diagram from the desk, and his eyes fell on various places, thinking silently.

The warden naturally changed the subject.

"The old imperial city formation was created by our ancestors based on the Frost Tribulation of All Things, supplemented by the Zhongtian Yin Fu Sutra. However, a thousand years later, under the influence of various strange creations of the predecessors, it has completely changed compared to the original."

He said slowly, "Fortunately, Wangjing never fell during the most dangerous time of the Qin Dynasty. The court has all the blueprints of this formation, and the changes can be traced. However, it still takes a lot of effort to figure it out. It is not easy to change it. A single move will affect the entire system."

Gu Zhuo listened quietly without saying anything.

The Supervisor added, "The great formation in the capital of God has fully learned from this lesson. They made full considerations before setting up the formation, and have never neglected it in recent years. But no one knows what it will look like in a thousand years."

Gu Zhuo put down the blueprint in his hand, looked at the lonely moon in the night, and said, "You don't seem like a talkative person."

"is it?"

The Supervisor was stunned for a moment, then sighed and said, "It may be the truth that things will turn into the opposite when they reach their extremes. In the past few years, I have been immersed in cultivation and no one has talked to me. Over time, I have kept too many words in my heart."

Gu Zhuo said thoughtfully: "Is that so?"

The Supervisor seemed to be really interested, and said with a touch of sadness: "Two generations died in the war a hundred years ago. The older generation died in pieces, and there are not many left in the middle generation. It is said that people in the Return to One Realm can live for three hundred years, but how many people can really live to the end of three hundred years?"

"There are always things in life that cannot be avoided, and that thing is cause and effect."

He sighed and said: "Karma is like an invisible thread that pulls living people into puppets, forcing them to throw themselves into the fire without caring about their own lives, and perform a series of dramatic plays."

These words were not spoken intentionally to avoid anyone, nor were they spoken in a low voice. They fell into the ears of everyone along with the night wind.

Song Jinglun's body stiffened slightly, thinking of the strange scene he saw when he entered the city that day. The crowd in front of the carriage seemed like puppets, dodging to the sides without any awareness.

At that time, he asked the supervisor whether this was a supernatural power, and he was told yes.

Thinking of this, Song Jinglun's mood became more and more strange, with sourness, bitterness, depression and melancholy intertwined together, as if someone had stuffed a bowl of bitter medicine down his throat.

Even he, the disciple, had never heard his master explain the principles of his supernatural powers in person, so why was Gu Zhuo, who was of the same generation as him, able to be told about it during casual conversation?

Isn't this too unreasonable?
……

……

“Cause and effect are real things, but they are never the ones that determine everything.”

Gu Zhuo shook his head and said, "Your idea is biased."

The supervisor looked at him and asked, "So what do you think is important?"

Gu Zhuo said: "Choose."

The supervisor asked, "Can you be more specific?"

Gu Zhuo thought for a moment and said, "Force it."

The supervisor remained silent.

Gu Zhuo said: "This is also the original intention of cultivation."

The purpose of spiritual practice is to achieve self-transcendence, which from the very beginning is an act of forcing something that cannot be achieved.

Birth is the cause, and death is the result. The moment a person comes into this world, he or she has created this cause, and the purpose of cultivation is to avoid having to bear this result.

The supervisor naturally understood what this meant. He laughed and said, "It seems that life is a grand practice. This saying does make some sense."

Gu Zhuo was not interested in such meaningless sighs. He stood up from his chair and walked towards the formation.

The night failed to cover the old imperial city. Besides the bright lights here, the precious materials from all over the world emitted a strange light.

The interweaving of these strange lights and colors should have created a dreamlike scene, but in fact it only gave people an indescribable feeling of confusion and distortion.

Even practitioners who have entered the realm of Dongzhen cannot stay in such an environment for a long time, otherwise their minds are likely to be irreparably affected, which will increase the difficulty of their future practice.

It was for this reason that the officials of the Imperial Observatory had to take action themselves.

Gu Zhuo walked in the unveiled formation, following the blueprint he had seen not long ago, silently sensing this old imperial city formation that had withstood thousands of years of wind and rain.

What Jianzheng said to him was all true. This formation had undergone too many changes and was completely unrecognizable compared to the original one.

However, Yu Sheng did not lie to him. The formation did contain the true meaning of the frosty sky of all things.

The true meaning of all things in the frost sky is a real thing, but just like the principles hidden in the scriptures and the sword intent of a sword cultivator, it does not have a material entity in itself. It is an indescribable sublimation.

As for the blurred and distorted feeling at this moment, perhaps it is the result of the formation itself being deleted and modified too many times and becoming unrecognizable?
However, even in this situation, the true meaning of the Frosty Sky of All Things mixed in is still extremely conspicuous.

At some point, Gu Zhuo stopped.

Before he knew it, he had walked into a hall, facing an extremely thick wooden pillar.

The wooden pillar had been split open, and strange light was overflowing from it like water, mixed with a bone-chilling coldness.

He knew that was the true meaning of the Frosty Sky of All Things, and he calmly stretched out a finger and reached deep into it.

The official from the Imperial Observatory stood nearby, looking at Gu Zhuo's profile with an extremely nervous expression, but did not dare to say anything to dissuade him.

Normally, they would not engage in such contact at all, but would take a more cautious approach.

After an unknown amount of time, Gu Zhuo withdrew his fingertips.

There was a slight exclamation.

Under the light, everyone could clearly see that Gu Zhuo's skin was slightly charred, like wood struck by lightning, and then in the blink of an eye, they discovered that there was a strange glow emerging in it.

Just when the local officials in Wangjing could no longer hide their anxiety, Gu Zhuo put his thumb on it and rubbed it gently, and the mark was wiped away like dust and completely disappeared.

Then he nodded and thanked everyone present and turned back.

The Supervisor watched him walk back and said with emotion: "It seems that you also understand how troublesome this old imperial capital formation is. The thoughts of countless people over the past thousand years have been mixed together and presented in a distorted way. Even the ground veins of Wangjing City have been affected and are in disarray."

Gu Zhuo nodded and said, "It is indeed not an ordinary trouble."

As he spoke, he picked up the formation diagram and looked at it again, thinking silently for a moment.

Yu Sheng's intention in letting him see this formation was very clear. It was not only to let him witness the true meaning of the Frost Sky Tribulation of All Things with his own eyes, but also a warning and reminder to let him know just how domineering and cruel this technique was.

The Balance of Heaven and Earth is derived from the combination of the Yuanshi Demonic Scripture and the Star Frost Tribulation.

No one in this world understands the Yuanshi Taoist Canon better than him, but his attainments in the Star Frost Tribulation are shallow and far inferior to Yu Sheng.

If he is determined to practice the Balance of Heaven and Earth as the fundamental method, then he needs to have a deeper understanding of the Star Frost Tribulation and its predecessor, the Frost Tribulation of All Things, otherwise there will be the danger of imbalance in the future path.

Thinking of this, Gu Zhuo had to admit that Yu Sheng was a competent senior sister.

After a cup of hot tea, he put down the formation diagram and said, "See you tomorrow."

The supervisor looked at him with a smile and said, "Don't you want to continue watching?"

Gu Zhuo said: "I'm tired."

This statement sounded fake, but the director did not care at all. He waved to the officials of the Imperial Observatory who were still busy, indicating that they would stop there for tonight and continue their work tomorrow.

Then he said to Gu Zhuo: "That's enough business for now. I want to talk to you next."

Gu Zhuo hummed.

Under the gaze of everyone, the two left.

The old imperial city covers a very vast area, and there is still a long way to go after walking out of its depths.

The moonlight is like water, submerging the pavilions and towers and bringing a cool shade.

Gu Zhuo never spoke.

The supervisor didn't care about his indifference, he looked up at the lonely moon in the sky, and suddenly said, "It really looks like it."

Gu Zhuo turned a deaf ear to it.

The Supervisor turned his head, looked into his eyes, and said with a smile, "The moonlight tonight is not much different from the night when you surpassed the Third Prince by the White Horse Lake. It is just as bleak and cold."

Suddenly the wind came, and the coldness continued.

Gu Zhuo let the cold wind blow on his face, his expression remained calm, and he said, "Really?"

The supervisor smiled and said, "Yes."

(End of this chapter)