bookbashuk Chapter 18 Unparalleled Cultivation
Chapter 18 Unparalleled Cultivation
Yangping Mountain is some distance from Pengzhou County. It was already dark, and I assumed that Pengzhou County was closed. I was wondering where I would stay for the night when I saw a large group of people carrying torches and beating drums and gongs walking towards me from the direction of Pengzhou County.
The leader saw Zhang Jiao, suddenly shouted to the people behind him, and then ran towards Zhang Jiao's direction.
Before he could dodge, Zhang Jiao was grabbed by the hem of his clothes by the leading constable, and then a fat man with a big belly stepped out of the sedan chair, his fat jiggling with every step he took.
With eyes the size of mung beans, he glanced at Zhang Jiao and saw his disheveled hair and refugee-like appearance, a hint of disdain in his eyes.
However, upon seeing the nine-section staff in Zhang Jiao's hand, he became somewhat cautious.
He remembered that this was a ritual implement used only by Taoist priests.
"Did they come from Lutang in Mianzhu?" the magistrate asked tentatively.
Zhang Jiao was still in a daze, and nodded subconsciously.
That's for sure. In folk tales, immortals are always unkempt. The magistrate stroked his goatee, and a fawning smile immediately appeared on his face.
"The immortal has traveled a long way and manifested himself all the way to my Pengzhou County. I, the county magistrate, have admired the immortal since childhood. I would like to invite the immortal to my residence for a chat, as a token of my hospitality."
Zhang Jiao seemed to have figured out what the group had misunderstood. He wanted to explain, but then he thought that if he didn't rely on them, he might have to sleep in the wilderness tonight, so he remained silent for a long time.
Without Yi Chuan, this frail scholar might not even be able to see the sun rise tomorrow in the desolate wilderness.
Seeing that Zhang Jiao did not answer for a long time, the magistrate became even more confident in his judgment and hurriedly ordered the yamen runners to put Zhang Jiao into a sedan chair and carry him back to the county yamen.
Inside the county government office, lanterns and decorations had already been put up. As soon as Zhang Jiao got out of the sedan chair, two very pretty maids came forward to help him. Zhang Jiao was embarrassed and ignored them, and walked into the county government office.
The county government office was already filled with a feast, all delicacies that Zhang Jiao had never heard of before, including birds and beasts, rare fruits and vegetables.
As soon as Zhang Jiao entered, countless people dressed in finery stepped forward to pay their respects, addressing him as a county magistrate, a member of a certain family, or an official of a certain rank.
He was forcibly pulled to sit in the head seat. The banquet began, and he was surrounded by clinking glasses. He didn't recognize most of the birds and beasts on the table. The wine in the gold-inlaid jade cups was amber in color, and there were crushed tridacna shell fragments at the bottom of the cups...
Zhang Jiao felt uncomfortable at first, but strangely enough, he calmed down quickly.
A fat dog was rooting around under the table, drooling. The magistrate threw a plate of roasted meat under the table, and the fat dog immediately devoured it, causing everyone in the room to burst into laughter.
The conversation at the table turned to immortals and state affairs, with everyone expressing loyalty to the emperor and patriotism. Zhang Jiao listened but couldn't get a word in edgewise.
He looked at the dog under the table, which was stuffed and panting with its tongue hanging out.
He thought of those people in Mianzhu who starved to death and were burned as firewood.
During this month, Zhang Jiao rarely thought about those things.
"This is a record of the various mountains in Sichuan that I have surveyed along the way. Only the feng shui of Nanhua Mountain south of your county is auspicious enough to match the altar for worshipping Heaven. I trouble the county magistrate to forward it to the Imperial Court."
Without touching a single bite, Zhang Jiao took out a thin scroll from his person and handed it to the county magistrate.
The magistrate glanced at it casually, then tossed the document onto the table beside him: "Hey, the ceremony at the Temple of Heaven is such a grand affair. Sichuan is far from Luoyang; why would the Emperor travel thousands of miles to this barbaric place to offer sacrifices to Heaven?"
His words were met with laughter from the entire room.
Zhang Jiao fell silent. He saw the dusty official documents piled up on the desk, among which was the memo he had painstakingly written over the years, which seemed perfectly natural.
He remained silent for quite a while this time, his eyes were dull and lifeless, and something in his heart slowly sank to the bottom.
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On Yangping Mountain, Yi Chuan was still laughing, and this laughter made Zhang Heng frown and begin to examine whether he had overlooked some things.
To be able to cultivate the "Food Qi Method" to this level in just one month, to be able to burn talismans to save people, and to withstand heavenly lightning—if such supernatural powers are not true cultivation, then who is it? Moreover, the time and place all match the Celestial Master's last instructions!
After laughing enough, Yi Chuan wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes and looked at the suspicious Zhang Heng, asking, "So, what are you going to do to me, a True Cultivator of Destiny?"
"Kill me? Or hand me over to the Commandant of the Capital Region who just left you?"
Yi Chuan squinted; he had already figured out that the people who had just left Yangpingzhi were the men of the Commandant of the Capital Region of the Han Dynasty.
Because those people had plaques on their waists, and Zhang Jiao also had one, but those people's plaques were inlaid with gold and jade, while Zhang Jiao's small wooden plaque looked very shabby.
"No, I never intended to kill you, and besides, it seems I can't kill you anyway." Zhang Heng shook his head with a smile, his eyes cloudy, as if he could see through Yi Chuan's strange body.
Yi Chuan shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
"Those military officers from the capital region came to talk to me about something else. I will only imprison you on the mountain."
"Your mountain cannot imprison this humble Taoist for long."
"As long as I am here, may I ask you to stay on this mountain for one more day?"
"Why are you forcing me to stay on the mountain?"
Zhang Heng squinted: "Because of your existence, some people are very uneasy."
"A true cultivator of destiny possesses immense fortune and profound karma, enough to shake the very fate of the Han Dynasty. They learned a lesson from this hundreds of years ago, so they dare not allow you to be born again."
"Several hundred years ago?" Yi Chuan narrowed his eyes. It seemed that Lu Tangzhi and Zhang Xiu had also said something similar. According to Zhang Xiu, it was because of an event several hundred years ago that the Daoist arts began to decline.
Zhang Heng nodded, and then something called fear appeared in the eyes of this Celestial Master:
"That was an unparalleled cultivation, encountering a destiny that swept across the world..."
"My father said that although the Heavenly Mandate True Cultivator is not as good as that person, he still has potential."
"I am flattered," Yi Chuan smiled. "So, Master, you are a member of the Han Dynasty?"
Zhang Heng remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement.
"In return, I will give you the last two chapters of the Six Qi Food Qi Method, as well as the other six volumes of the Taiqing Xuanyuan Record. Although life on the mountain is austere, I will instruct my disciples to serve you as they would serve me."
A wisp of smoke curled into the quiet room, and silence fell over it for a moment.
Bai Ze rolled over, realizing that this two-legged creature couldn't carry him anymore. He jumped off Yi Chuan's shoulder, gritted his teeth, glared fiercely at Zhang Heng, and ran out of the quiet room like a white lightning bolt.
"The last two questions."
In the quiet room, Yi Chuan, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke: "First, is Master's behavior at the behest of the Celestial Master Zhang Daoling?"
Zhang Heng, who had been smiling and amiable, suddenly froze, his body stiffening on the spot, without answering.
Knowing the answer, Yi Chuan smiled and spoke again:
"The second question."
"The land was ravaged by plague, filled with the cries of the dying; people resorted to cannibalism, cooking bones together..."
Yi Chuan stared intently at Zhang Heng: "Does the Han Dynasty truly deserve such treatment from Master?"
……
He didn't reveal his identity as a scholar, but the county magistrate and a group of powerful figures begged for the secret to immortality, so Zhang Jiao found an excuse to come out of the county office.
The sky was clear and the stars were few. Zhang Jiao let out a long breath, trying to expel the lingering scent of perfume from his chest.
He missed the days when he and Yi Chuan braved the elements and trekked through mountains and rivers.
His forehead was covered in sweat as he walked down the street, clutching his nine-section staff, his eyes vacant.
At this time, the people on the street had already closed their doors tightly. A group of yamen runners escorted the prisoner past. Zhang Jiao mechanically stepped aside, but suddenly heard a very faint cry.
The crying was soft, childish, hoarse, and dry, as if the person crying had been crying for a long time and had run out of strength.
He looked up and blankly saw a tiny child behind a series of chained prisoners.
The child was very young, only five or six years old. He couldn't keep up with the speed of the constables and was being dragged along. His tender feet and knees were rubbed raw and bloody.
He was crying, his swollen, innocent eyes looking behind him with almost desperate hope.
In the back room was a cart piled high with corpses. At the very top of the pile was a thin, dark-skinned man with wide-open eyes and broken limbs.
Under the cold moonlight, the man clutched a bloodstained wooden plaque tightly in his hand.
Zhang Jiao's eyes widened.
Zhang Jiao remembered the wooden plaque because he had personally witnessed Yi Chuan carving it in that dilapidated temple.
The wooden plaque had two seal characters engraved on it. That night, Yi Chuan even showed it to me and asked if I had made any mistakes in engraving.
The two characters are "Taiping" (太平).