Watching and Waiting

The Qilin Pavilion has nine floors, each of which is completely concealed.

Light streams in cleverly through the gaps in the attic, creating an excellent reading environment combined with the ever-burning palace lanterns, allowing one to immerse themselves in reading.

Wenying Pavilion distinguishes various types of books by category A, B, C, and D, while Qilin Pavilion is distinguished by the number of floors in the pavilion.

The lower level mainly consists of basic classics, with layers upon layers of bamboo slips totaling hundreds of thousands of scrolls. As you go higher up the stack, the quality of the classics becomes increasingly higher.

Greedy people generally believe that the higher the level, the greater the benefits, but they lack the coherent content that progresses step by step, and the higher the level, the more difficult the content becomes to understand.

Zhang Xuezhou casually flipped through the bamboo slips and found the characters on them strange and unrecognizable.

"Xiang Yu of Chu burned Xianyang, and the Qin palace's records were severely damaged as a result. Even after a century of restoration efforts by many of us, only a small portion has been recovered. The bamboo slips you obtained belonged to Ximen Bao of Wei, and their translation is still incomplete!"

Seeing Zhang Xuezhou rummaging through things, Sima Tan, who was high up in the pavilion, spoke up to guide him, and also mentioned that the bamboo slips area, which had been restored by many people, were now ready for normal reading.

"Isn't there a jade heirloom?" Zhang Xuezhou replied in surprise.

"That's what Xiang Yu thought too!"

Sima Tan replied irritably.

Clearly, heirloom jade can contain some information, but not everything can be recorded in it.

Cultivators focus more on the content of their practice, and things like astronomy, calendar systems, history, and customs are not included in the records.

Whether or not the inheritance jade can be activated is another matter entirely.

For the Great Han Dynasty, succeeding the Qin Dynasty was not as good as imagined, and it truly struggled for a century without ever regaining the glory of the Qin Dynasty's heyday.

After wandering around the attic for a while, Zhang Xuezhou finally found a corner.

Compared to the vast collection of bamboo slips and silk scrolls on the ground floor of the attic, this area only occupies one-tenth of the space, but it still contains tens of thousands of scrolls of readable material.

"Grand Historian, I want to learn to fly. Where is the content of this flying cultivation?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"If you stretch out your hand and reach up, the scroll of the Great Wind Sutra that you can touch allows you to cultivate flying skills!"

"That's not good!"

Zhang Xuezhou's hands moved faster than his words, and he read the document quickly as well.

A blank sheet of paper filled with information can be glanced over quickly, while bamboo slips contain less information; Zhang Xuezhou could almost finish reading them the moment he opened the bamboo slip.

After reading it, Zhang Xuezhou found the contents of the "Great Wind Sutra" utterly unbearable to read.

"This is likely to mislead young people; how can one possibly soar through the clouds using this method!"

There were very few skilled fliers in the imperial court, with Tian Fen being the foremost among them. However, Zhang Xuezhou considered Tian Fen's flying skills rather poor, let alone comparing the two.

Although Tian Fen was the Marquis of Wu'an, Tian Fen did not come from a three-generation aristocratic Aristocratic Clan, but rather from a newly formed marquisate.

Since the other party did not have any ancestral skills, it's not hard to guess the origin of their flying technique; it most likely originated from the Qilin Pavilion.

Zhang Xuezhou had previously thought that Tian Fen's aptitude was somewhat lacking, and that he only secured his position by forcefully pulling him along from behind the Empress Dowager. But now, after seeing the "Great Wind Scripture" in the Qilin Pavilion, Zhang Xuezhou suddenly realized that Tian Fen's aptitude was terrifyingly strong.

If he were to cultivate further using classic texts that contained such basic errors, Zhang Xuezhou felt that his ability to fly would be a stroke of good fortune.

The Cloud Soaring Technique given by the Goat Strength Demon King was indeed extraordinary, while the Wind Avoidance Instruction of the Kunlun Sacred Land had no other problems except for its difficulty in cultivation.

Zhang Xuezhou walked up the Qilin Pavilion, repeatedly flipping through the pages related to the "Great Wind Sutra" at specific locations. He felt that the collection in the Qilin Pavilion was indeed just average.

What might be considered a treasure trove of secrets by others was indeed far less than what Zhang Xuezhou knew.

However, Zhang Xuezhou cannot say that the "Great Wind Sutra" is entirely useless. This sutra progresses step by step from bottom to top. Although there are omissions, errors, and incomplete sections, the sutra is suitable for normal and orderly practice. If it is repaired, it can also be of auxiliary use to help Rong Tianding.

"Grand Astrologer, isn't anyone here going to revise the Great Wind Sutra?" Zhang Xuezhou called out towards the three-story pavilion, "This sutra seems to have quite a few contradictions!"

"This 'Great Wind Classic' has been revised no less than ten times. Each revision required a new batch of revisions to arrive at the current version," Sima Tan said. "Now everyone is just waiting for Marquis of Wu'an to revise it!"

"Waiting for Marquis of Wu'an?"

Zhang Xuezhou replied, feeling that if the "Great Wind Classic" were revised again, it would likely become even more distorted.

However, revising scriptures does indeed require the ability of those who excel in a particular field. Anyone who stands out in a certain area will possess authority and will also guide others to learn.

Among the many officials in the imperial court, Tian Fen was skilled in flying, and through diligent practice and continuous demonstration, his prestige was earned through hard work.

"Speaking of which, you seem to have a good relationship with that Daoist priest Li. He can fly like a whirlwind, as swift as a rushing river," Sima Tan said. "Instead of trying to obtain the 'Great Wind Classic,' you should become his disciple and have him teach you!"

"The Daoist priest's school of thought is different from mine, so I can't teach him," Zhang Xuezhou said, waving his hand.

"It's a real shame that his flying techniques are so closely tied to Realm Technique," Sima Tan lamented. "Our Great Han Dynasty has had its own distinct paths for a long time, and these sectarian differences have caused far too much trouble!"

"Spring arrives when all flowers bloom!"

"Bullshit, it's all disorganized and doesn't flow together properly!"

Zhang Xuezhou had just uttered a compliment when Sima Tan responded with a curse.

"The lack of a standard is a terrible thing. The contention of a hundred schools of thought has led to continuous division," Sima Tan said. "You say you have your reasons, I say I have my methods, the people don't know who to learn from, and officials find it difficult to freely mobilize and adapt. It's also difficult for the world to be unified!"

"What did the Grand Historian learn from?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"I've studied a wide variety of things, including Yin and Yang, Confucianism, Mohism, the School of Names, Legalism, and Daoism. I've taken a lot of detours, which has led to me achieving nothing so far. When I'm old, I can only lament that time waits for no one, and that's how my life will be," Sima Tan sighed.

Zhang Xuezhou had seen many great cultivators, many of whom were extremely outstanding, but most of them did not talk about principles but only about methods. Whether they were right or wrong could be determined by a battle of magic.

People who emphasize 'standards' like Sima Tan are indeed rare, which piqued his interest, so he inquired about it.

"Isn't a one-size-fits-all approach a bit inappropriate?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"If things are too loose, they need to be bound together; if they are too tight, they need to be loosened," Sima Tan said. "This is the inevitable path that dynasties must take when they change!"

Is that so?

"Our Great Han are too disorganized. If we don't rein them in, they'll fall apart completely!"

After Sima Tan finished speaking, he did not say anything more, but instead turned his gaze towards Anle Palace.

His words were ruthless, but Sima Tan's eyes held a newfound vitality as he looked towards Anle Palace.

The pillars supporting the Great Han Dynasty collapsed, but the resistance that bound the Great Han Dynasty together also diminished.

This is the funeral of the Empress Dowager, and it may also herald the new beginning of the dynasty.

The new emperor is young and unstable, making it difficult to see any hope. However, the empress dowager, who has followed Emperor Jing for decades, is very steady. Perhaps the next Great Han Dynasty will be able to fulfill Emperor Jing's original ideals.

"The Purple Star is dimmed, and the purple qi moves westward and eastward to settle in Changxin Palace. This is the sign of the Empress Dowager ruling as regent. The Empress Dowager is learned and knowledgeable, and should be able to eliminate the corrupt practices of favoritism in the court. However, she practices the Legalist methods used by the Qin Dynasty, and once a law is applied, there is no mercy. In the future, she will likely bring disaster upon herself!"

As night began to fall and stars began to appear in the sky, Sima Tan gazed at the starry sky and murmured to himself.

He was well-versed in astrology and constantly made judgments about good and bad fortune.

"The White Tiger signifies murder, the Lion... Hmm? Where did this lion come from in this constellation?"

Ordinary people see only a few stars in the sky, but Sima Tan saw many strange phenomena when he looked at them.

As night fell and the stars appeared, he made his usual attempt to identify them, only to find that he saw celestial phenomena that shouldn't have appeared before his eyes.

He glanced at it briefly, then looked again, but the charging lion was nowhere to be seen in the sky.