"Don't push! Don't push! Slow down!"
"Please keep in line! Everyone will get out!"
The people began to leave after the lecture of the first day ended. Quite a few people volunteered to keep the order, and divided the crowd into groups so that they could exit the square in turn.
It was indeed remarkable, for a big event involving tens of thousands of people had not had a single accident nor any chaos from the beginning to the end.
Tao Yu held Tao Yi's hand, while You Yu held onto Tao Tong. The four of them inched forward and it seemed forever before they finally reached their vehicle. It was already evening, but the sun was still blazing above head. Having been standing there the whole day, they finally felt the fatigue and hunger.
Instead of heading back, they found a restaurant nearby. There were over a dozen tables inside and they were lucky enough to take the last unoccupied one.
"Four bowls of potato noodles with eggs, please!"
"We'll also have a fried shredded meat and a green cabbage with rabbit meat stew."
"Any rice?" asked the waitress.
"Um, we'll take four!" Tao Yu hesitated a little, but generously ordered the rice anyway.
You Yu was a little embarrassed, saying, "Brother Tao, I'm spending so much of your money!"
"We've all met the master before, which means fate has brought us together. After the selection a few days later, you may all become classmates. There's no need to be bothered with little things like this." Tao Yu waved him off and poured four cups of weak tea. "Xiao You, did you understand everything you heard today?"
"Mostly, but there was so much that I'm afraid I won't be able to remember everything. Why, I should have recorded it." You Yu was rather vexed.
"Don't worry. I saw someone else recording it. It'll be out on the market soon enough."
"Do you mean the, the Pavilion of Secrets?" You Yu hesitated a little before saying that ridiculous name.
"Who else? But you've got to give it to them—someone there's got a quick wit!"
Tao Yu was a businessman, and had his own understanding of this. He was chuckling when he made that comment; You Yu could not tell whether he was praising or mocking the information gatherers.
The dishes were served a moment later. Four crude pottery bowls came out first, each containing some steaming hot potato noodles together with some mushrooms, wood ear, ham slices, and a shelled boiled egg.
Obviously, the ham was not a pork product, but was made from the yellow-fur rat. The most commonly eaten meat on the market consisted of two types: rat meat and rabbit meat. The latter was fine, but the common people still found the mention of the rat meat rather offsetting. Instead of using its full name, they referred to it simply as "meat".
It had become a common practice. When one asked to "buy some meat", everyone knew that it meant "but some rat meat".
As for the egg, it was from a type of mutated pigeon. It was introduced on the market a few months ago; it seemed to come in great numbers, and was soon served on the dinner tables all over the country. It tasted rather similar to eggs from hens, but was slightly smaller in size and had a dark-red yolk.
With the scarcity of resources nowadays, there wasn't much left on the menu of the restaurants, but dishes of the Northeast kept their main features: big-bowled, filled to the brim, and very salty. As the stew was served, the size made the three kids from the South jump.
"..."
Watching the food on the table, Tao Yu became awfully quiet. He used to be tired of eating all kinds of exotic food, but what was he eating now? A bowl of luxurious rice!
Sigh, this f**king world!
'Oh, no!' He corrected himself right way. 'Thank God for this new world!'
All four were starving by now, and began to wolf down the food. Everyone here in the restaurant was back from the lecture, and they were all talking about what they heard in all kinds of accents.
Among the all the hubbub, a familiar reminder rang out again. "Hey, there's an update!"
"Whoosh!" The roomful of people moved in unison again, taking out their phones and tapping the app open. Phoenix Mountain had just put up a new post, which was the detailed agenda of the event.
"There will be lectures every morning at eight o'clock at the square until the 13th.
8th: General Principles by Phoenix Mountain.
9th: Dan Method by the monastery.
10th: Talisman Spells by the monastery.
11th: Fengshui by the monastery.
12th: Sword Skill and Appraisal of Spiritual Beasts by the monastery.
13th: Thunder Technique and Undead Insect by Phoenix Mountain."
"..."
Everyone was awfully quiet now. However, a few seconds later, they all began to talk at the same time, and the restaurant erupted.
"I didn't know the monastery is taking part as well. How come they're giving more lectures than Phoenix Mountain?"
"The proportion is not important. It's all about the order of the lectures. Not everyone can talk about the general principles, ok?"
"Hey, is Dan method Neidan? Wang Chongyang of the Quanzhen Sect! The Competition on Huashan Mountain! The five supreme masters
"Holy sh*t! There's one on Thunder Technique? Ok, that's it! I'm joining Phoenix Mountain—even just for the name of that skill!"
"So true! Thunder Technique is the best!"
"Sword skill is pretty nice, too. Too bad that the monastery is so strict on recruiting pupils. I've been there twice, and got rejected both times."
One had to admit that people nowadays were so easily influenced by online information that as soon as they saw the agenda, they were all attracted by the names of Thunder Technique and Sword Skill. As for subjects such as Fengshui or spiritual beasts, no one was bothered to give them a second thought.
Tao Yu knew better than the common folk, and said in a low voice, "As far as I know, there are four Immortal masters up on the mountain: Mr. Gu, Fairy Jiang, Miss Qiu, and Miss Jin. Miss Qiu is taught by Mr. Gu and practices Sword Skill and Undead Insect Skill, while Miss Jin is taught by Fairy Jiang and uses the Thunder Technique. If you become the pupils of the mountain, who do you want to have as your teacher?"
"I think Sister Xiaojin is very nice. I want her to teach me," answered Tao Yi without hesitation.
"Yes! Sister Xiaojin is so lovely!" Tao Tong chimed in right away.
'That's it! You two are hopeless!' Tao Yu could feel his temple throbbing. As an experienced businessman, he was sharp-eyed enough to have long seen through that Miss Patriarch—that fellow was a prankster through and through!
As the only adult here, he obviously considered things differently from the kids. "Between us, I actually hope you will all become pupils of Mr. Gu himself. So if you get the chance, do push for it. That's the same with you too, Xiao You."
"Oh, I see!"
All three were good kids, and nodded at the instruction.
***
A certain hotel.
He He had just finished taking a shower, and went back to her room with her wet hair hanging loose over her shoulders. Xu Ziying was her roommate.
Before they knew it, they had joined the Taiqing Palace for over a year, and both had changed greatly. Xu Ziying was thirteen now and much taller. She was beginning to give off an air of a remarkable young woman that was valiant and confident.
He He was nine and still a child, but one could see from her face the beautiful woman she would become one day.
As the most exceptional pupils of the Taiqing Palace, they were here with their master to listen to the lecture. Like others from every other temple from all over the country, they were staying in this hotel. The relationship between these two was somewhat complicated, for it was a mixture of competition and appreciation. Xu Ziying liked a little provocation, while He He was not too generous with her words, but could shut the other up with a piercing comment when she chose to retort.
Right now, they were both lying in bed. Xu Ziying asked in boredom, "What do you think of today?"
"Quite good. I liked what he said."
"Gosh, I've had enough of your poker face! Hey, you're from Bai Town yourself. Ever regretted of joining the Taiqing?" The girl was suddenly interested in some gossip and asked eagerly, "You know, if you didn't come to our palace, you'd be able to apply for Phoenix Mountain now."
"Why should I regret?"
He He pulled the duvet over herself and closed her eyes. She then said quietly, "When my grandpa passed away, it was the Taiqing Palace that I met. Since I have joined the palace, this is the path I'm going to follow."
***
A farmhouse.
In this residence in a village somewhere near Bai Town, an electric fan was blowing uselessly inside a stuffy bedroom. A low table was set on the kang and a round table on the floor, around which were a dozen people wearing earphones, all transcribing the content of a recording.
A man was walking around the room, checking their progress while waving a fan, acting like a boss of some sort. It was none other than the leader of that Pavilion of Secrets, Wu Chun.
"Boss, I'm done." Soon, one of them raised his head and handed out his draft. Wu Chun quickly read through it, and said, "It's a little rough, but lucid enough. You'll get a merit pay when we make the profit."
"Hehe! Thank you, Boss!" The man thanked him right away, then asked anxiously, "Brother, are you sure people are going to pay for this?"
"Are you kidding me? I may be useless in a lot of things, but I'm an expert in wheeling and dealing. They wouldn't blink twice to pay 500 for these crappy drafts!"
"Wouldn't Phoenix Mountain take us out for that? We're pirating here!" asked another man in a shaky voice.
"Tsk, I'll be the one answering to that. Go back to your work!" Wu Chun jabbed his finger in the air at that man, then strolled casually to the door. Putting one foot on the doorsill, he looked into the distance. Just look at those stars in the night sky and think about the mountain and the Immortals within! He was suddenly overwhelmed by a great and lofty aspiration, feeling that he was rising together with this new era.
He had made the arrangement before the lecture began, asking ten people to each record a section of the lecture for them to transcribe it later. Errors were inevitable during this process, but that wouldn't be a problem.
He would make several hundred copies of this draft and call it "revised version 1.0". After a thorough proofreading, he would then produce the "revised version 2.0".
Call it "skinning a cow twice"! How sweet a deal!
Meanwhile, in the capital city thousands of kilometers away, a group of people were doing the same thing.
As soon as the lecture was over, the bosses received the audio file from the BIMAUP. With the professionals available at hand, the general content of the lecture was soon put into words.
A group of people was now sitting around a table, reading the manuscript while listening to the recording, and nodding every now and then.
"All I can say is that it was very appropriate. It is happening at the right time and for the right audience. I have no objection to it."
"It is easy to understand, realistic, and without a personal agenda. I have no objection, either."
"If I may suggest, we'd better make it into a nationwide basic teaching material."
"In his exact words?"
"In his exact words."
"...well, that is certainly a viable option."
***
The same night, Phoenix Mountain.
The family of four and the 35 members of the monastery sat upright in a big hall for the internal communication. To be honest, Gu Yu didn't go into details this morning, and only talked about the general principles and the mentality of the era.
Hence, there wasn't much they could discuss now. After showering one another with compliments, Gu Yu finally brought up a subject that he had long wanted to talk about.
"When I was in Bonn, I had some lengthy discussion with a few western sages, which was quite an eye-opening experience. Like us, the West is seeing some great gaps in their heritage. My personal opinion is that they are far behind us in the cultivation level of the individuals. However, they have surpassed us in the classification of basic disciplines and the research in matters and energy."
"Oh? How so?" asked Lu Yuanqing curiously.
"There was this old man named Erhard. His master was a legendary sage of medieval Europe, who was a master in magical formations and alchemy. Erhard had set up a formation in Bonn, which could protect half the city from attacks.
"He had also set up many magical spots around the city, which not only enabled the mages to communicate and send messages, but also worked as stations for puppet carriages. He was even doing research on these magical spots so that they would be able to deliver physical objects in the future—and that was not all. There was this achievement he made with alchemy, which almost took my breath away…" Gu Yu paused a little, then said, "It was a Homunculus."
"Homunculus?"
Having been raised in temples since childhood, living an austere cultivation life, the priests had little contact with the outside world and were naturally not as well-informed as the city-dwellers. The term was very confusing to them, so they waited for Gu Yu's explanation.
"In alchemy, a human being is believed to consist of three components: a physical body, a soul, and a spirit. That is to say, if one could create all three parts, they could give birth to life without a womb.
"A human being made this way is born possessing all knowledge, and can live a long life disease-free. Legend has it that the most perfect one could see the Truth.
"Although Erhard did not succeed, he had come up with a prototype. If he indeed manages to create such a life form one day, all I can say is that we human beings will have one more prophet... or disaster."
"..."
Everyone in the room fell silent, for what Gu Yu just said was a little beyond their existing cognitive system.
Gu Yu went on. "A question keeps coming back to me since I came back from Bonn: ever since the ancient times, our cultivation was all about comprehension and asceticism, without a solid theoretical base or empirical method. So, is it possible that we could study Taoist skills the same way as doing research?"
He paused there for everyone else to digest that information before turning to Lu Yuanqing. "If I may ask, what is the teaching system like in the monastery?"
"We haven't officially taken in any pupils, so there is no established system yet. However, I have planned to integrate the Taoist skills of various sects and divide them into categories, which would include scriptures, Neidan, Waidan, sword skill, Fengshui, theory of skills, etc."
Lu Yuanqing was not stingy in sharing information, either, and said right away, "The monastery now has 27 Taoist skills and 134 talisman spells. The latter are more complicated, for some are offensive, some are defensive, some are auxiliary, and some are used for healing. However, not all attack spells are the same, for some work by summoning gods, while others by transforming objects… I'm planning to abandon the old system and categorize them anew based on their properties and functions."
Very nice!
Had Old Gu been an ancient man himself, he would have definitely given Lu Yuanqing a "thee most wondrous sir!"
It was indeed a great plan! Ancient cultivators were all-rounders who knew a little about just about everything. Because of that, though, they never had a clear and complete system.
It wouldn't work for the modern society. With the declined Taoist skills coming back again, categorizing the skills not only made communication and education easier, it would also help with in-depth cultivation studies. Most of the Taoist skills were created by cultivators themselves. Hence, if the ancient cultivators could do that, so could the modern ones.
However, that would require two things.
For one, they had to have enough cultivators around. For another, just as Gu Yu suggested, they needed to treat it as if they were doing research.
Of course, it only referred to external skills such as Waidan, talismans, and spells, but not the internal skills like the essence-consuming method and Dan method. The latter was determined by one's state of mind, which no research could make a difference with. For the internal skills, one had to depend solely on their natural endowment, perception, and their determination to pursue the Great Dao.
"So far, we're seeing inheritance in all categories apart from formations, which is a skill of great significance. It will be of great use to us in the future," Gu Yu went on. "For instance, if we can invent a formation to defend our entire country or send cultivators thousands of miles away in an instant, our world will be changed completely. I have recently just come up with a Small Sealing Formation…"
With that, he took out a jade slip. "It should be the most complete formation map we have now, and is something that I created out of thin air. I hope it'll inspire you in some way so that we can work together and fill this gap in the formation skill."
"..."
The others winced a little at this, for a strange feeling was rising inside them.
After all, it was only last year that the two sides were slightly hostile towards each other, and even broke into a fight once. With Gu Yu becoming a Human Immortal now, it seemed he had put that behind him completely.
They now realized that this man was standing somewhere much higher up and looking further into the future with a much wider scope. There was no fear in him—the fear that someone would surpass him one day.
Lu Yuanqing rose slowly to his feet and took the jade slip on behalf of the monastery. He then said in a solemn voice, "I thank you, Layman, on behalf of all the cultivators of our generation!"