"The Tao Te Ching familiar to people today is nothing more than the Three Purities Patriarch's writings with the Refining Spirit into Void Treatise removed."
Qinghe had spoken quietly, yet Xing Yan was stunned. It took him a long while to recover-had the old Daoist mentioned some obscure classic, he probably would not have been so shocked. But Laozi's two books, the Way and Virtue, had circulated since antiquity; everyone knew them. How could he not be astonished to learn that they actually had a third part?
After a long, bewildered silence, once the buzzing in his head had subsided, Xing Yan asked Qinghe, full of doubt:
"Then why has the Tao Te Ching contained only the Way and Virtue throughout all these centuries? I've never heard of any Law Scripture!"
Qinghe, who had just uttered such earth-shaking words, seemed to have expected his disbelief. Leisurely stroking his beard, he answered:
"It's a long story. My banishment had a great deal to do with it, too."
Only now did Qinghe admit for the first time before Xing Yan that he had not come to Raozhou to cultivate amid the mortal world, but had truly been banished for an offense. He said:
"Actually, Xing Yan, did you know that the original handwritten scrolls of the Tao Te Ching left by the Three Purities Patriarch when he incarnated as the Sage of the Way and Virtue are kept at Luofu?"
"Oh? Really?"
By now, even these unheard-of revelations no longer startled Xing Yan as much as they had at first.
"Indeed!"
Amid the mountain breeze, Qinghe continued:
"The Classic of the Way and Virtue that Laozi carved by hand into Xiang Bamboo is called the Highest Clarity Bamboo Slips. They're kept in the Heavenly One Pavilion on Flying Cloud Summit, Mount Luofu.