The quiet Daoist chamber was serene, incense smoke curling upward.
Beneath the hanging painting, "Deer Crying at Dawn," Hongzhen Zi, Yunji Temple Master, sat cross-legged at ease, holding a scroll of scripture and studying it closely.
At his side, an auspicious incense burner blew mist from a bronze kettle with a low hum.
As the scriptures turned, the incense burned out unnoticed, and the cold lamp gradually dimmed. Yet its bean-sized glimmer could not conceal those bright, spirited eyes.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
A faint set of footsteps suddenly came from outside, followed by a knock upon the wooden door.
"Come in."
The visitor was Xuanzhen Zi, Hongzhen Zi's junior brother and Yunji Temple's general steward. Unlike Hongzhen Zi's full head of black hair, his own had already gone gray, and age spots dotted his somber face.
Perhaps he had been worn down by worldly affairs.
"Senior Brother, a Great Five-Armored Demon has suddenly appeared in Changlan City. It slaughtered the city and drained blood as provisions for its bloody feast!"
"What did you say?"
Hongzhen Zi abruptly raised his head, shock written all over his face. "Hadn't the demon scourge in Changlan City already been put to death?"
"That was the matter from the day before yesterday. It is said that this demon merely sought an excuse to provoke trouble, all to avenge that demon scourge which was put to death!" Xuanzhen Zi said gravely.
"This is bad. Changlan City has only Tianbao Temple to shoulder such a burden, but ever since Venerable Master Juewu passed into nirvana, Buddha's light has been veiled in dust. I fear it cannot withstand this demon."
Hongzhen Zi's expression turned solemn. As he spoke, he suddenly rose, prepared to go suppress demons and banish evil.
"Senior Brother, wait. That Great Five-Armored Demon has already been put to death!"
"Put to death? Could it be that some great master happened to pass by?"
"Senior Brother, your wisdom remains as keen as ever. But I am certain you cannot guess who this great master was." Xuanzhen Zi continued.
Hongzhen Zi said nothing. He studied his junior brother's expression closely. Beneath that aged face lay the weathered look of one who had seen all the vicissitudes of the mortal world.
Yet those vicissitudes of the mortal world could not hide the trace of pride and shock in his clouded eyes.
"Could this be connected to Yunji Temple?"
"Senior Brother truly is exceptionally wise!"
Hongzhen Zi let out a breath of relief, his thoughts racing.
"One capable of slaying a Great Five-Armored Demon either refined their spirit until the soul left the body, swallowing the sun and exhaling the moon; or refined qi and drew in the creation of heaven and earth, slaying it with Daoist arts; or contemplated deeply to clarify their will and comprehended the Great Dao..."
As his thoughts whirled, a gleam flashed through Hongzhen Zi's eyes. "Could it be Martial Uncle Zhiquan?"
"No!"
"Senior Brother Shouzhen?"
"No!"
"...Patriarch Shenyi?"
"No!"
"Then who could it be?"
Hongzhen Zi was bewildered. He had named everyone he could think of. Of those remaining, only he himself could barely slay a Great Five-Armored Demon.
And that was only on the premise that the Great Five-Armored Demon neither fled nor ran.
"You surely will not believe this, Senior Brother. This great master was of our own generation, with the Daoist name Yan Zhen."
"Yan Zhen..."
Hongzhen Zi's eyes filled with confusion. As one of the same generation bearing the character Zhen, the name felt somewhat familiar to him.
Yet he was completely at a loss when it came to that Daoist name.
"Yan Zhen was Martial Uncle Tianquan's registered disciple. He guarded his heart in the wood shed for three years before leaving without farewell. He went to Huayin Mountain instead, built a thatched Daoist temple in the wilderness, and cultivated bitterly for sixty years. Only a few days ago did he finally leave the mountain. It is said that he intended to return to Yunji Temple."
Xuanzhen Zi was full of boundless emotion.
"Sixty years of bitter cultivation? Could he already possess a century of Daoist attainment?"
"Likely less than sixty years."
"Then how did he slay that Great Five-Armored Demon?"
"He sacrificed himself for righteousness, used the Art of Soldier's Release to emerge as a Yin Spirit, then fell further to become a Jie Immortal. Only then did he slay it."
Clatter!
Those few words startled the scripture from Hongzhen Zi's hands, sending wisps of dust drifting up.
As Yunji Temple Master, he understood better than anyone what those words represented.
"Is the information accurate?"
"I specifically dispatched three Yin Spirits to investigate, and also asked Liu Xianjia's shrine in Xishan City to verify it. It is basically true."
Xuanzhen Zi said in a deep voice.
As Yunji Temple's general steward, overseeing all matters great and small, how could he possibly come report before understanding the situation?
"Where are our junior brother's remains?" Hongzhen Zi asked, his voice trembling.
"Before his Liberation by Violence, Junior Brother entrusted Luo Feibai, the escort chief of Changlong Escort Agency, to protect his remains and return them to the Daoist order. I have already sent a Yin Spirit to guard them in secret. They should be nearing Xishan City by now."
"Excellent! Tomorrow, Yunji Temple shall ring its bell, descend the steps in reverent welcome, and receive True Person Yan Zhen back to the temple!" Hongzhen Zi declared solemnly.
"I shall obey the Temple Master's command!" Xuanzhen Zi gave a grave salute and departed to carry out the order.
The rabbit rose, the crow fell.
The following day, worshippers who came to offer incense all discovered in surprise that Yunji Temple's atmosphere was unusual.
Everyone in the Daoist order wore yellow crowns and Daoist robes, their appearance solemn. Even the usually liveliest Daoist children had reined in some of their playfulness.
Only after asking curiously did they learn that a True Person's remains were returning to the temple today.
How strange!
What sort of great master could receive such treatment?
By late morning, the temple bells rang long through the mountains and wilderness.
Amid the lingering toll of the bells, a carriage arrived covered in dust from its journey and stopped before Yunji Temple's main gate.
"Disciples of Yunji Temple, welcome True Person Yan Zhen back to the temple!"
Amid the long ceremonial announcement,
Hongzhen Zi, Yunji Temple Master, wore a yellow crown and Daoist robe, fully dressed in the formal attire of the Daoist order as he descended the steps to welcome him.
Worshippers who witnessed the ceremony went home and spread the tale:
That day, immortal cranes descended upon the gate and circled Yan Zhen's remains, unwilling to leave for a long while.
When the common folk heard of it, they clicked their tongues in wonder, all eagerly guessing at the True Person's identity.
Until several days later, when residents of Changxing City fled to relatives in Xishan, a legendary tale worthy of being recorded in local chronicles finally became widely known.
Only then did everyone learn who the True Person welcomed by Yunji Temple truly was.
For a time, Yunji Temple's incense offerings flourished greatly.
After Yunji Temple welcomed Yan Zhen's remains back through its mountain gate, it completed the temple register and buried him seated within a shrine.
The next day, Hongzhen Zi, Yunji Temple Master, bestowed a Dharma register to certify his Dharma position and recorded his name in the Divine realm, allowing him to commune with deities.
At the rightmost edge beneath the Three Pure Ones' statues in the Cloud Hall, an additional spirit tablet quietly appeared.
It bore the words: True Person Yan Zhen of Yunji.
During that day's morning lesson, Juezhen Zi, the chief lecturer, sat beneath the Three Pure Ones' statues and taught the Yunji Daoist scripture.
After nightfall, Juezhen Zi guarded the hall and imparted the secret teachings not passed on to inner disciples!
Meanwhile,
Mo Chuan, using incense offerings as a mirror, listened to Juezhen Zi's teachings, his heart filled with boundless emotion.
When he awoke early that morning, he discovered that another strand of incense had been added to the Sacrificial Dao Furnace.
Moreover, that strand of incense far surpassed the sum of all the previous ones.
At the time, he had already made a guess. Now that he saw this, it was indeed just as he had expected.
It was simply an unexpected delight!
"Yunji Temple, Yunji Temple, this poor Daoist borrowed your disciple's body, raised your temple's prestige, and learned a little Daoist magic. That is only right and proper!"
Mo Chuan consoled himself, then immediately focused his attention and listened carefully to Juezhen Zi's teaching.
As he listened, he became utterly absorbed.
By the time he came back to himself, it was already deep into the night.
After sorting through it a little, Mo Chuan realized that the decline of Fu Luan Temple's lineage had been inevitable.
The Great Dao is benevolent and gives life, enticing men by bestowing its teachings.
Yet though there were many Dao Paths, those that could truly be traversed were few and far between.
Fu Luan Temple's lineage was ultimately somewhat of an unorthodox side path.
Its so-called spirit-writing method relied entirely on the Patriarch's power alone.
What it sought was for one man to attain the Dao, and for his chickens and dogs to ascend to heaven with him!
Mo Chuan even suspected that the founder of Fu Luan Temple had turned to cultivating as a ghost immortal because he saw no hope in his Dao Path.
Then he had modeled it after the path of incense offerings, gathering the strength of the entire temple to supply a single person.
Though this method carried more than a whiff of fraud, it had grasped a good deal of the essence of pyramid schemes. Every disciple under its banner could shed their form and become a ghost immortal.
Thus, even if someone in the sect realized something was wrong, they could not turn back and could only keep maintaining the lie.
As for whether this method was truly an evil art?
That was difficult to say.
Cultivating the Dao was, by nature, seizing the creation of heaven and earth.
Seizing pines and cypresses to abstain from grain;
Seizing gold and stone to refine pills;
Seizing water jade and flowing pearls for dual cultivation of Yin cauldron and Yang furnace;
Seizing plain-script talismans and cinnabar registers to command ghosts and gods;
Examples such as these were too numerous to count.
If that was the case, then which among them was orthodox Dharma? Which was evil Dharma?
Thus, Yunji Temple believed that methods did not lie in orthodoxy or evil, but in one's words and deeds!
That happened to coincide with Fu Luan Temple's view.
Returning to the main point.
Yunji Temple's lineage was the Three Sceneries Dao.
It seized the creation of the Three Lights of Sun, Moon, and Stars!
Thus, it was also called the Three Escapes Technique and the Three Lights Method.
This path had evolved from the Two Sceneries Dao.
The so-called Two Sceneries Dao was also known as Escaping Two Sceneries, the method of storing sun and moon within the mud pellet, and the Method of Ingesting Sun and Moon Rays.
It emphasized using sunlight to refine the soul and moon rays to nourish the corporeal soul, valuing spirit over form.
Yunji Temple's Patriarch introduced the Taiping Astral Dao, using starlight to refine the body. It emphasized refining the spirit while preserving the form, taking a steady and balanced path.
If one's lifespan ran out, one could also turn to cultivating the Yin Spirit method.
"No wonder Yunji Temple's incense offerings are so abundant. This lineage sounds quite excellent."
Mo Chuan nodded to himself.
This Daoist magic suited his tastes quite well. After hearing it all, he became eager to give it a try.
He now enjoyed incense offerings day and night, and his divine soul had grown considerably stronger. Though he had listened to scripture and Daoist teachings until midnight, he did not feel the slightest bit sleepy.
He rose and walked to the edge of the balcony. Seeing the moon hanging high at the center of the sky, an idea stirred in his heart. He simply went out, climbed to the rooftop, and began cultivating.
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