The Taiping Dao

"No, why are you crying?"

Lu Yuan was puzzled. He'd only taken a few glances. Was she saying he wasn't even allowed to look?

At his words, Feng Xixi shook her head and sobbed, "It has nothing to do with you. I was just thinking about all the grievances I've suffered over the years..."

Lu Yuan shook his head. In this world, it was normal for girls to marry at fourteen or fifteen, and beauty standards favored a youthful appearance. One could only imagine how many judgmental stares Feng Xixi had endured over the years because of her figure.

She could only blame being born into the wrong world.

With her delicate, breathtaking face and superb figure, in his previous life she would have been the very picture of a mature goddess—at school, she'd have been the ultimate campus beauty.

He hadn't expected her to face so much discrimination in this world.

"Don't be sad, Miss Feng. Why care so much about what other people think? Their idle gossip won't make you lose a pound of flesh. We live this life for ourselves, not for other people."

Feng Xixi stopped crying and stared at him blankly. "B-but even if that's true, it's not so easy to stop caring what other people think, is it?"

Lu Yuan said, "Miss Feng, only narrow-minded fools think there's something wrong with your figure. Anyway, in my eyes, you're much prettier than your younger sister."

"Huh?"

Feng Xixi looked up at Lu Yuan. His expression was serious. She murmured, "You're not just trying to comfort me?"

"It's the truth. It couldn't be truer."

Lu Yuan spoke solemnly.

"Only shallow, narrow-minded people would look down on you. There are just too few people who can appreciate your beauty."

Feng Xixi's cheeks flushed. She looked a little disbelieving, and somewhat bashful.

She could feel how sincere Lu Yuan was. She hadn't thought that there was really a man in this world who thought she was beautiful.

And he wasn't just trying to comfort her.

"Thank you..."

Feng Xixi lowered her head until it was nearly buried in her ample bosom, her heart fluttering like a startled fawn.

Now that they'd laid everything out in the open, Lu Yuan saw that Lu Cheng and Feng Rongrong had disappeared from sight. He decided to chat with Feng Xixi for a while.

When it came down to it, Feng Xixi was only about high-school age. Gradually, she grew more outgoing, and they chatted about all sorts of things.

"I read in a book about something called Stone Taisui. They say it can live for ten million years without dying. Your family deals in medicinal materials—have you ever seen any?"

"Stone Taisui..."

Lu Yuan sprang to his feet, as though a bolt of lightning had just flashed through his mind.

Stone Taisui!

Taisui Stone!

Could the two be connected somehow?

"Miss Feng, something's come up. I must be going!"

With that, Lu Yuan left at once, leaving Feng Xixi sitting in the pavilion, at a loss. When he disappeared from view, her expression dimmed.

Lu Yuan strode off with his head down, but soon realized he was lost.

He was just about to find someone and ask how to get out when he heard a faint voice. His heart stirred, and he cautiously edged closer to the corner of the wall.

He knew that voice well. It belonged to Feng Yuan, and he could hear a note of ingratiation in it.

In the study.

Feng Yuan said respectfully, "The envoy's arrival is truly an honor for me, Feng Yuan."

The envoy was a broad-shouldered man dressed in white. He replied coolly, "How's the task arranged by our superiors coming along?"

"How could I fail to carry out something the envoy assigned?"

Feng Yuan chuckled ingratiatingly.

"It's just that Yi Zheng is too wary. I had to pay a steep price to earn his initial trust and draw a map of Iron Dragon Stockade's layout."

"What? Are you unhappy about it?"

The man in white swept him with a cold glance. "What's that little price to you? Once my Taiping Sect succeeds in its uprising, could your Feng Family possibly be left without its share of the spoils?"

"Of course, of course..."

Feng Yuan nodded repeatedly and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Then he asked cautiously,

"Envoy, when does the higher-up plan to move against Iron Dragon Stockade?"

"In ten days..."

Lu Yuan glanced around and quietly withdrew.

He was quite surprised. Feng Yuan had actually colluded with the Taiping Dao.

The Taiping Sect was a sect that had risen to prominence in recent years and enjoyed great prestige among the people. They said it could heal the sick and save the dying with Talisman Water.

As soon as Lu Yuan heard about this, he felt that the Taiping Dao didn't seem like a legitimate sect. Healing people with Talisman Water—however he looked at it, this sounded just like something Great Teacher of Virtuousness Zhang Jiao would do.

It was said that Zhang Jiao had initially taught spells and incantations, gathering followers far and wide to establish the Taiping Dao. He treated people with Talisman Water and incantations. Many who drank the water he had chanted over recovered after kneeling to worship and repent, and came to revere Zhang Jiao as a god.

Later, he raised the cry, "The azure heaven is dead; the yellow heaven shall rise. In the year of Jiazi, all under heaven shall prosper!" and launched his uprising.

After hearing about the Taiping Sect, Lu Yuan had looked into it. The more he learned, the more sinister it seemed. But the poor at the bottom of society all thought the Taiping Sect was a benevolent faith, and flocked to believe in it.

Still, there was no way he could believe that burning a few paper talismans and mixing them into water could cure people.

From what this so-called envoy and Feng Yuan had said, was the Taiping Dao also plotting a rebellion?

But why was the Taiping Dao targeting Iron Dragon Stockade?

"Ten days... I wonder if I can fish in troubled waters..."

When he got home, Lu Yuan immediately began searching for information about Stone Taisui.

According to the records: "Stone Taisui is non-toxic, nourishes the middle, replenishes vital essence, increases wisdom, and treats knots in the chest. Take it for a long time, and you will grow light of body and never age."

It turned out that Stone Taisui was the finest variety of all Taisui. It grew in rocks deep underground, between 1,000 and more than 2,000 meters beneath high mountains.

It had a fibrous, cotton-like structure, with flesh that was not elastic. Some had looser flesh and contained more water, often resembling pork fat or white fungus.

Others had firmer flesh and contained less water, often resembling beef tallow or clusters of granules.

Because Stone Taisui grew attached to rocks, it came in different colors. Some were as white as snow, some as bright as rosy clouds, and some had a red-and-white gradient like pork belly.

Stone Taisui was extraordinarily resilient. Legend had it that it could bore into a stone even when there were no cracks, slowly eat through it, and transform into Taisui flesh, taking ten million years to grow into a huge mass.

But no matter how much Lu Yuan searched, he couldn't find anything connecting Stone Taisui to Taisui Stone. He couldn't help feeling a little discouraged.

"What are you looking for?"

When Lu Longjing returned home, the servants told him that his second son was rummaging through books like a madman, so he hurried over.

"Father, do you know about Taisui Stone?"

"Stone Taisui? I do."

Lu Longjing nodded.

Lu Yuan corrected him. "Not Stone Taisui. Taisui Stone."

"Taisui Stone?"

Lu Longjing was about to shake his head, but seemed to recall something. "I can't remember which book I saw it in, but legend says that Stone Taisui that's more than a hundred thousand years old gradually turns to stone. I'm not sure whether petrified Stone Taisui is what they call Taisui Stone, though."

Lu Yuan's heart eased. At least he finally had a lead. He wasn't stumbling around blindly anymore. He quickly asked,

"Father, do you know where I could find petrified Taisui Stone?"

Lu Longjing gave a wry smile. "You're asking the impossible of your father. Taisui Stone is already the finest of all Taisui, let alone petrified Taisui Stone. By the way, why are you asking about Stone Taisui... Taisui Stone?"