Searching for Dong Zhongshu
Is magic really that powerful?
"Indeed, as long as you gain the goodwill of a fortune-teller, the other party can indeed possess a certain degree of good luck!"
Having distanced himself from Daoist Ran Deng and traveled for a day, confirming that he had completely shaken off Daoist Ran Deng, Rong Tianding finally inquired about some related matters out of curiosity.
He remembered the situation before he dozed off; at that time, the Daoist Ran Deng was being evasive, making it extremely difficult to get any useful information out of him.
But after he regained consciousness, he became the one asking Zhang Xuezhou to continue his story.
The roles of those in need have been completely reversed.
It was clearly Zhang Xuezhou who made the request to Daoist Randeng, but somehow it became Daoist Randeng making the request to Zhang Xuezhou.
This change was so drastic that even Rong Tianding couldn't help but be curious.
Besides his eloquence, Zhang Xuezhou felt that his ability to navigate water also played a role.
As long as he is near water, he is the Unseen to have some good luck.
Even his luck in catching fish in the river was much better than Rong Tianding's.
In his home turf, Zhang Xuezhou and the Daoist Ran Deng communicated smoothly and cooperated excellently.
The fact that the two even have a harmonious relationship might bring a bit of good luck to the Daoist Ran Deng.
Zhang Xuezhou didn't care what benefits the Daoist Ran Deng had received; after all, he had obtained 108,000 techniques from the Western Sect from the Daoist Ran Deng.
This is the supreme method of the Western Sect, and some people practice it, but to this day only the disciples of Buddha Tathagata have attained the highest level of practice.
Compared to the ingenious use of the Immortal Court's many avoidance techniques, the Western Sect's 108,000 techniques can be described as having a full range of capabilities.
The consequence of mastering so many techniques is that the difficulty of cultivating the 108,000 acupoints is several times greater than that of conventional avoidance techniques, and in terms of specialization, it is inferior to the 108,000 acupoint techniques of the Kunlun Sacred Land.
For example, when comparing their abilities in Grain Avoidance, Zhang Xuezhou would certainly surpass the Buddha's disciple at the same level of cultivation. The same applies when comparing their abilities in avoiding water, dust, wind, and lightning.
However, no matter how many specializations one has, the Kunlun Sacred Land's evasion techniques still have their flaws.
One issue is that the methods of avoidance need to be adapted; the other is that the avoidance techniques specialized in the Kunlun Sacred Land cannot prevent every predicament.
For example, the "Stop the Spear" Technique Method, which evasion technique should be used? These are all difficult questions to answer among the nine evasion techniques.
This problem does not exist for the 108,000 techniques of the Western Sect; no matter what they encounter, the opponent only has one technique to counter them.
Before breaking through the limit, these 108,000 techniques are practically invincible, but once the limit is broken, all the abilities they possess become like flowing water, insignificant.
Perhaps the Buddha's disciple's 108,000 techniques had not yet reached their peak, or perhaps the power of Brahma's serpent staff was too fierce, which led Dipankara to realize the Buddha's disciple's lack of strength, and thus the two exchanged places.
The exchange between Zhang Xuezhou and the Daoist Ran Deng involved only one recitation. The Daoist Ran Deng's advantage lay in his years of teaching and accumulated knowledge, while Zhang Xuezhou's advantage lay in his memory.
He sat on horseback for almost an entire day, trying to recall everything the other person had said, before finally organizing it all back together.
The content of the memorization did not pose a real difficulty for Zhang Xuezhou. Even though he was also dizzy, Zhang Xuezhou was able to memorize the relevant content told by Daoist Ran Deng completely. When he returned to reality and reviewed and checked it repeatedly, any minor oversights would inevitably be sorted out.
The real difficulty lies in spiritual practice.
This is an achievement attained by the Buddha's disciples after a hundred years of practice in the Sacred Land; it cannot be accomplished overnight.
Moreover, the Buddha's disciple devoted almost all his attention to the 108,000 techniques. If someone could master them in just a few years, their talent would be at least dozens of times greater than that of the Buddha's disciple.
The Nine Great Avoidance Techniques emphasize the unobstructed flow of acupoints to exert a counteracting effect. These 108,000 acupoint techniques, in addition to being connected, also require the refinement of Law Power until they become stronger and reach their peak. Cultivation can be described as endless.
Even though Zhang Xuezhou was proficient in the nine major avoidance techniques and had almost memorized and verified the 108,000 techniques mentioned by the Burning Lamp Daoist, he still found it difficult to quickly advance his cultivation to a practical level.
"Unless Your Majesty moves the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains again, and with proper preparation, it might be possible to rapidly advance this Ten Thousand Eight Thousand Aperture Technique. In reality, however, it requires finding a place abundant with spiritual jade, and constantly relying on the immense Spiritual Qi of the jade to impact, infuse, and refine it, only then is it possible to rapidly achieve minor mastery of this technique!"
He silently considered the conditions most likely to rapidly advance his cultivation, then banished the thought from his mind.
Traveling along the road used by the King of Huainan to enter Chang'an City, even though Zhang Xuezhou and his group were delayed for a while, they arrived in Shouchun City by evening.
At this time, Shouchun City was about to close its gates as night fell, and Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding arrived just in time.
Rong Tianding used to disbelieve in mystical things like luck, but after practicing the "Tomb Scripture" in Chang'an City, he couldn't help but become more accepting of it.
When he saw that he had just entered Shouchun City before nightfall, he wondered if this was another stroke of good luck.
In short, whenever something good happens, it can all be attributed to good luck.
Like Zhang Xuezhou before him, he also fell into the vicious cycle of divination, developing the ingrained idea of 'spiritual mediums granting children'.
Rong Tianding was like this, but Zhang Xuezhou, who practiced magic, was somewhat uneasy.
His good fortune at this time may be due to his distance from the new emperor. Once he gets too close to the new emperor, conflict may arise without his knowledge, and it is hard to say whether he can withstand the disaster.
Zhang Xuezhou couldn't stay away from the new emperor forever; he was someone who wanted to push the art of fortune forward, not someone who wanted to escape and enjoy a little bit of good luck.
This situation, where the two sides might clash but were forced to be together, was extremely contradictory. It led Zhang Xuezhou to abandon the recruitment task entrusted to him by the new emperor and instead seek out Dong Zhongshu, who also studied the art of movement.
Besides the issues related to the conflict between cultivation techniques, Zhang Xuezhou also wanted to figure out how cultivation techniques were actually practiced and how much connection there was between the favored land and cultivation techniques.
The central idea behind practicing fortune-telling in classic texts such as "Zaiyou" is to rely on the imperial court and thus enjoy the court's favorable influence.
The place favored by Bai does not require any connection with the imperial court.
However, Bai was also suppressed by the dynasty's fortune established by Emperor Gaozu and found it difficult to escape.
The various differences made it difficult for Zhang Xuezhou to make an accurate judgment, and he hoped that his visit to Dong Zhongshu would provide answers that could resolve his doubts.
After dismounting and entering Shouchun City, Zhang Xuezhou along, constantly scanning his surroundings to check the inn where Dong Zhongshu had previously stayed.
It is uncertain whether Dong Zhongshu was in Shouchun City more than a year ago or not.
Zhang Xuezhou hoped for a bit of luck so that he could run into Dong Zhongshu in Shouchun City.