Chapter 270: Desire to Practice Divine Skills
Chapter 270: Desire to Practice Divine Skills
The next day, morning.
Xiangyang Lane is located in the west of the river, backed by the inner city wall of Fuzhou Prefecture.
At the entrance of the alley, there are two seven-story pagodas built in the Tang Dynasty, which block most of the sunlight during the day. During the twelve hours, only when the yin and yang separate the day at dawn, the rare three quarters of an hour of morning light shines in.
Over the years, the alley has always been cool and shady, with a chilly environment.
There were still some residents in the early years, but they gradually moved away later.
There are two rows of houses with white walls and black tiles in the alley. Except for the one at the entrance, there are two families living in it. The alley is gradually falling into silence. The vines in the ditch climb up, and drill in and out of the cracks in the brick walls. Many courtyards along the way have not been inhabited for more than ten years and are completely abandoned.
After getting rid of the Japanese devil, Zhang Yu deliberately circled Fuzhou City a few times to make sure there were no flies following him before he felt at ease and came to the origin of all the turmoil, right and wrong, good and evil, and worldly debts - Xiangyang Lane in Fuzhou Prefecture.
"Lin's old house?"
Zhang Yu looked up at the door lintel.
Fuzhou is rainy, dark and damp. The word "Lin" on the wooden plaque is covered with several moss scars, which seem to record the changes of time. The owner has not returned, and only the house is left empty. That is the story of the people of the previous generation.
"Lin Yuantu lived in seclusion here in his later years. Before his death, he left a message to his descendants, 'Do not look at the ancestral relics in the old house in Xiangyang Lane without permission.' This sentence... has a rather unclear meaning."
"If you really don't want your descendants to practice, just burn them."
"Why add unnecessary steps?"
Suddenly a cold wind blew in the alley. Zhang Yu was trying to figure out what Monk Du Yuan was thinking when he suddenly felt a little cold and could not help but tighten his silk robe.
Seeing a big lock on the door, he walked a few steps to the side and jumped over the wall.
Some things in the world are like snakes in the grass, with hidden veins for thousands of miles. They seem important, but in fact they are just a few waves stirred up in the long river of time. They attract attention for a moment, but do not affect the overall situation.
Even without the "Sunflower Manual", "Star Absorbing Art", "Evil-Defeating Sword Technique", "Yi Jin Jing", these unparalleled martial arts, without the monk Du Yuan who could not suppress his worldly desires, and without the "Sword of Dust Removal" he left behind, would the grudges in the martial arts world cease? Would the struggles between the orthodox religions and the divine religions cease?
Nothing can be changed.
It wasn't the Lin family that was wiped out, it could have been the Zhang family or the Li family.
The strong swallows the weak. No matter what skin you are wearing, the true nature of the world is still bloody.
"Pong!"
Zhang Yu fell to the soft ground.
A thin layer of fallen leaves was spread in the yard, and things were placed in their proper places. The Fuwei Escort Agency did not neglect the founder's retreat, and sent people to look after it every once in a while. However, it was so old and uninhabited that it could not hide the desolate atmosphere.
There was a Buddhist temple in the backyard. Zhang Yu lit a candle and the light filled the room, which was relatively clean.
A seated Maitreya statue is enshrined on the shrine, and below it are more than thirty densely packed ancestral tablets, all of which are of the Lin family, from the "Zhong" at the top to the "Yuan" at the bottom. Due to their age, many of the wooden tablets are tarnished and have already decayed.
Two couplets are engraved on the left and right: "Loyalty and righteousness will spread far and wide, and the blessings of succession will last forever."
When people are in this world, the more they lack something, the more they desire it.
It's just that the tools we are born with are limited, and we often gain something and lose something.
Monk Du Yuan could not resist the temptation, and after returning to secular life, he practiced the sword technique to ward off evil spirits, restored his surname Lin, and made a great career in the martial arts world. He was happy to have a grudge for decades, and his influence still exists today, but his reputation will last for a long time, and his future blessings will not last long.
Zhang Yu looked at the couplet and thought to himself, "Lin Yuantu did not name his adopted son according to his generational family name. He lived in seclusion in this small Buddhist temple in his later years. I wonder if he regrets it."
The small Buddhist hall was cramped, not even one-fifth the size of the main hall of Xuanyue Temple. Zhang Yu had sharp senses and extraordinary insight. After groping for a while, he quickly found the location of the mechanism.
"Click!" He held the lotus candlestick on the shrine. At first it didn't move at all. The candlestick was connected to the base. When it turned, the resistance was very strong. He used a little true energy to gradually push it in.
Following a few rumbling sounds, two stone slabs in front of the threshold of the Buddhist hall moved outward, revealing a dark hole in the middle.
Although the details cannot be seen from the outside, the internal structure of this simple mechanism is roughly the same. The candlestick is connected to an iron chain and several interlocking gears, which are pulled together to drive the heavy object at the other end.
The mechanical information technology of the Ming Dynasty was a collection of the essence of past dynasties. With the prosperity of maritime trade, it absorbed some mechanical drawings from the West. As long as there was enough gold and silver, its exquisite structure would be enough to shock people hundreds of years later.
In the martial arts world, there are also sects such as Qianqiaotang and Xinmomen that specialize in designing and building secret rooms and palaces. They are usually not well-known and some of them are similar to the escort agency business. They are a group of people who make a fortune in silence.
Zhang Yu placed the candle into the gauze cover, held up the lantern, and looked down at the iron ladder on the edge of the black hole.
The Book of the Sword of Exorcism, which was derived from the Book of the Sunflower, should be the most bizarre martial art in the world. He knew a little about the cause and effect, and couldn't help but hesitate.
"Master Hongye's disciple, his character, concentration, and martial arts knowledge should all be superior to ordinary people."
"To abandon the monkhood and return to the secular world is to abandon spiritual beliefs; to cut off one's roots and castrate oneself is to abandon the dignity of the body."
"Even with such a huge price to pay, Monk Du Yuan still couldn't help but injure himself while practicing his skills."
Zhang Yu himself was also unable to transcend the sea of love and desire, but after practicing the magical skills of the Xiaoyao Sect and being restrained by the green jade ring, he knew he was not capable of that and became obsessed with the sword technique of exorcising evil and decided to kill himself.
Decades have passed, and this iron ladder, which is more than 40 feet long, is still quite sturdy.
Zhang Yu walked down holding a lantern.
The cellar was only a few feet square, and was filled almost entirely with books, including Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian classics. On a wooden shelf in the middle, hanging in a very eye-catching place was a bright yellow cassock, with mysterious black writing on it, alternating horizontally and vertically. At a glance, there were at least three or four thousand words.
On that day, Monk Du Yuan, on the orders of his master, went to Mount Hua to persuade Yue Su and Cai Ziqing not to practice the Sunflower Manual. However, he himself had worldly thoughts and relied on the scriptures he heard from the two of them, integrating them with what he had learned from Buddhist scriptures, Zen principles, and Shaolin martial arts, to realize the even more bizarre "Bixie Sword Technique".
The light was dim, and the words on the cassock were already as small as a mosquito.
Zhang Yu looked left and right, but couldn't quite understand. He leaned in and looked carefully for a long time before he could make out a few lines of words between the characters. It turned out to be, "If you want to practice magic skills, you must first castrate yourself..."
"...wielding the sword to destroy the sun, he will dominate the martial arts world!"
Zhang Yu chuckled.
He suddenly understood a little bit about those people who wielded knives to cut off their balls in order to practice magic skills.
Practicing martial arts is an extremely difficult task in itself, and what is even more despairing is that due to limited qualifications, many people, even if they have the perseverance of perseverance, often reach a certain bottleneck and make no progress in their entire lives.
Just like him, he was born with many adventures, possessed a green jade ring and the North Sea Magical Art, and he also had to practice breathing and meditation, and he also had to hone his swordsmanship between life and death. It took him three years to go from being a deputy flag leader with mediocre martial arts skills to becoming Deputy Hall Master Zhang, a master of the acquired realm. The hardships involved are difficult for outsiders to describe.
There are only a few people in the entire martial arts world who have such a fate as his.
When practicing the Exorcism Sword Technique, regardless of aptitude, there is no bottleneck and within a very short period of time, one can reach the peak and become a first-class master.
In the martial arts world, the level of martial arts skills determines almost everything, including fame, wealth, power, and respect. For those martial arts heroes, there are so many interesting things. In comparison, women are just one of their many pleasures.
"You only lost two ounces of meat, but gained the whole world. Is there a better deal than this?"
"It's over. I'm a little moved. What should I do?"
(End of this chapter)