Two Realms: Starting with transmitting the Taiping Jing to Zhang Jiao

Chapter 21 No Sun or Moon in the Mountains

After reading the last two chapters of "The Six Qi Food Method", Yi Chuan immediately sat cross-legged.

The third volume, "Nourishing Qi," guides the six kinds of luminous energy from the lungs and internal organs, circulating them throughout the body's acupoints and meridians, thus truly achieving the Daoist body.

Once the Dao body is formed, magical power will naturally arise.

Although the Yangping Mountain formation suppressed his Qi cultivation, suppression does not mean it is gone.

At this time, the sun is high in the sky, which is the time when the Yang Qi among the six Qi is at its peak.

Yi Chuan took a deep breath, and the temperature in the room suddenly rose several degrees. A blazing red ball of light slowly entered his mouth and nose.

As evening approached, the light emanating from Yi Chuan's food source transformed from the blazing sun into a cascading spring.

Bai Ze, who had disappeared for a day, crawled in through the window crack and started eating the mouse he had caught.

I wanted to share some with the Taoist priest sitting on the futon as a way of repaying yesterday's tea, but the priest was ungrateful and only ate the plain porridge that was served.

Bai Ze felt it was a pity.

As darkness fell, the temperature in the room dropped sharply. Bai Ze meowed twice, and seeing that the Taoist priest did not respond, it jumped onto the bed and curled up into a ball.

Yi Chuan, who was sitting on the futon with his eyes half-closed, suddenly stood up, startling Bai Ze.

Thinking he was being told to get out of bed, Bai Ze looked a little aggrieved.

The cat just asked that! No one objected.

But after a long time, Bai Ze noticed that the Taoist priest was just gritting his teeth and staring at the two scrolls in his hands. Realizing that he wasn't being chased away, Bai Ze lightly jumped off the bed and walked to Yi Chuan's side.

At this moment, Yi Chuan put down his book, a few black lines flashing across his forehead.

He finally understood why that old Taoist priest Zhang Heng was so generous.

The first step in "cultivating qi" is to guide the six types of luminous qi from the lungs and internal organs, circulating them throughout the body's acupoints and meridians.

but!

His body is not a real flesh and blood. While it has general descriptions of the locations of the internal organs, it lacks intricate details like acupoints and meridians.

Without meridians and channels, how can one guide the flow of energy?

Without returning to his true physical body, even if he cultivated diligently on the mountain for a hundred years, he would not be able to break through to the third realm.

"This old Taoist priest seems easygoing and amiable, but he's still a cunning old fox after all!"

Yi Chuan put down the book, his mind going blank.

Upon seeing the furry Bai Ze sitting on the ground, staring at him with open eyes, Yi Chuan's expression softened somewhat.

"Did you come all the way back from Pengzhou?"

"What's the situation in Pengzhou now?"

Bai Ze tilted his head, his eyes revealing a clear sense of foolishness.

Thinking about how to express himself to this innocent little cat, Yi Chuan picked up a broom, held it in his hand, and pointed down the mountain.

Bai Ze's eyes widened suddenly, as if he understood. Then he put a stick in his mouth and walked eastward, raising his front paws as if he were leading something.

Has Zhang Jiao already left?

Having understood Bai Ze's meaning, Yi Chuan smiled.

Bai Ze squatted down and nodded his head frantically.

Not only did he leave, but many people saw him off; the cat had never seen so many people before.

"It's good that he left; his stage wasn't this small Pengzhou or even Sichuan."

Yi Chuan sighed and closed his eyes again to begin practicing the Food Qi Technique.

Although I couldn't break through to the next level, today's efforts weren't in vain.

Originally, the six rays of light were suppressed in the lungs and internal organs, becoming six small points of light. However, after a day of cultivation, the points of light have obviously grown a little larger.

Yi Chuan will do anything that can bring about change.

Bai Ze tilted its head, watched Yi Chuan meditate with his eyes closed, meowed twice, then jumped back onto the bed and curled up into a white ball of fur.

-----------------

There is no sun or moon on the mountain; the cold comes and the heat goes.

From Yi Chuan's perspective, the white snow covering everything near and far, and the layers of dense forests, repeatedly competed for the view of the earth and mountains.

The peaches on the back hill ripened twelve times.

This is also the twelfth year since Yi Chuan traveled to the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Gradually, Yang Pingzhi's disciples seemed to become familiar with the existence of this blue-robed Taoist. What surprised and puzzled them was that Yi Chuan's blue Taoist robe was never changed all year round, yet it was never dirty.

Moreover, Yi Chuan's appearance seemed to be frozen in time, without any change as time flowed by.

Twelve years have passed, and he seems to have become the only unchanging presence on Yangping Mountain.

In his spare time, Yi Chuan's only pleasure was to go to the Celestial Master's meditation room to chat with Zhang Heng. From the Celestial Master's expression and the increasingly frequent visits of the Commandant of the Capital Region, he could sense that the Han Dynasty was becoming increasingly difficult to govern.

After leaving Zhang Heng's place, Yi Chuan bumped into Zhang Lu, whose face was as cold as ice. Yi Chuan was already very familiar with this third-generation immortal after twelve years of contact with him. He greeted him and strolled back to his own house.

Zhang Lu pushed open the door to the clean room, sat down in front of Zhang Heng, whose hair was gray, and spoke with a cold face.

"Lutangzhi is growing stronger and stronger. I heard that it now has over ten thousand followers, and people outside are saying that Lutangzhi is now the head of the twenty-four administrative regions!"

Amidst the rising smoke, seeing Zhang Heng with his eyes closed and the dough as stiff as an old tree, Zhang Lu's anger intensified, and he slammed his fist on the table.

"That's my Zhang family's property, and it should rightfully be inherited by my Zhang family! Although Zhang Xiu bears the surname Zhang, he is not a member of my Zhang family!"

"Not only Lutangzhi, but I've also heard that in Qing, Xu, and Youzhou, there's another guy named Zhang Jiao who's spreading heresy and misleading the public. He calls himself the Heavenly General and the Great Teacher of Virtue, and his influence is almost as great as our Twenty-Four Provinces!"

After a long while, Zhang Heng slowly opened his cloudy eyes, stared at Zhang Lu steadily, and spoke calmly.

"The Tao follows the natural way, like water that does not contend."

"Not competing?" Zhang Lu almost sneered. "Is sitting here on this mountain considered not competing? If we don't compete, who in our descendants will even know about the Zhang family!"

"Our Celestial Master established twenty-four regions, and the Zhang family has always been the leader of this Taoist sect! We are now, and we always will be!"

Zhang Lu's sharp gaze remained fixed on his father's, but he did not get what he wanted.

"Your son dares to ask, if Father were to pass away, to whom would you pass on the position of Master?"

As soon as the words were spoken, an eerie, deathly silence immediately descended upon the entire Celestial Master's meditation room.

The two Yang Pingzhi disciples guarding the gate trembled, regretting that they were the ones on guard duty today.

"Go to Yizhou and find your mother."

A trace of pain appeared in Zhang Heng's cloudy eyes. Finally, he waved to Zhang Lu and closed his eyes again.

Zhang Lu gave a bitter laugh and staggered.

After a long while, he stood up, his eyes filled with an unprecedented ruthlessness and determination.

Zhang Lu walked to the door and took one last look at his father amidst the swirling smoke:

"One day I will let my father know who is right."

The next day, Zhang Lu left Yangping Mountain, taking most of its disciples with him, and the once vast Yangping Mountain immediately became deserted.

But none of this affected Yi Chuan in the slightest.

Bai Ze still travels back and forth between Pengzhou and the mountain every day, swaying back and forth as he describes the things down the mountain to Yi Chuan. After spending more than ten years together, Yi Chuan can understand what this guy is trying to express.

Even so, this silly cat still brings him mice and birds every day, and he never tires of it.

And perhaps because of the daily feeding of tea, Bai Ze, a twelve-year-old cat, should be considered an old cat, but he is still lively and energetic.

Over the course of twelve years, the crescent moon on the back of his hand has grown to almost half full, and the light in his heart has gradually grown from the size of a speck of dust when he first entered the mountains to the size of a pigeon egg.

"It's not the right time yet."

Every night, Yi Chuan would stroke Bai Ze's fur and think like this.

Most of the time, Bai Ze wouldn't let anyone touch him, so Yi Chuan would always increase the intensity of his Qi-eating technique, filling the entire room with the Qi of the dew, making Bai Ze stick close to him in the cold.

Through daily practice of absorbing Qi and cultivating the Tao, the peaches on the back mountain ripened seven more times.

Yi Chuan has been in this world for a full nineteen years.

Zhang Jiao's activities grew increasingly louder, and gradually, Yi Chuan began to hear this name from the disciples on the mountain.

It is said that he uses incantations and water to cure diseases, wields a nine-section staff as a talisman, and can scatter beans to create soldiers and summon wind and rain.

The disciple spoke with great enthusiasm, saying that he had founded the Way of Peace, and that his followers had completely surpassed those of the Twenty-Four Administrations. Only Zhang Xiu of the Lutang Administration could barely rival him in terms of influence.

Rumors spread throughout the mountains that he possessed sorcery and bewitched people, while Yi Chuan also noticed that the old Taoist priest Zhang Heng was looking at him with increasingly strange eyes.