Chapter Twenty: Hurrying the Ducks Up the Rack

  "What great virtue, truly great virtue. Will those ancestors not meet a good end?" I muttered to myself as I sat on the wall of Lingquan Temple, with Dengcao and Dengxin by my side.

  "Big brother, what do you think?" Lamp Grass Monk picked up the lamp wick from the wall and put it on his bald head, curling up, then asked me.

  "There must be something fishy about this!" I glanced at the wick, which was half-closed and looked very comfortable, and then nodded to the lamp grass.

  "Senior brother, do you think we will really come to a bad end?" Deng Cao has been entangled in this question. Monks are also human beings, and humans fear death. Not to mention Deng Cao, I am also pondering this issue now. The fate of a person's life is decided just like that, which makes me feel absurd.

  There are ghosts in this world, I believe it because I've seen them. Not only have I seen them, but I also killed one with my own hands. But when it comes to dragon veins and energy transportation, I'm a bit skeptical. You're expecting us four people to handle such high-level tasks? Isn't that just a joke? Especially since it involves Kunlun, is this the rhythm of Queen Mother preparing to invite us to the Yaochi Banquet?

  "You ask me, I ask who goes. Can't end well, I want to see who dares to make me not end well!" As soon as this is mentioned, I feel suffocated in my heart. Master, master, you don't give your disciple any benefits, that's fine. But don't push your disciple into the fire pit! With this thought, I sat on the wall with a huff, venting my anger there.

  "Crack!" Before the words had fallen, a bolt of lightning struck the green bamboo by the wall. A perfectly good green and crisp bamboo was instantly split in two, turning black as coal. If this lightning had struck just a few meters closer, it would have been me, Lou Mengmeng, who turned black as coal, not that bamboo.

  "Alright, you win." I looked up at the dark clouds in the sky and swallowed my saliva, feeling a bit subdued. I don't know if it was just a coincidence or what, but after I said that sentence, the cloud dispersed and the moon peeked out from behind it again, its corners slightly raised. Except for the black bamboo stick in front of me which still had tiny sparks flying around it, everything seemed to have returned to normal.

  "Big brother, there are gods and spirits everywhere. Let's not say such vicious words in the future." Denglao quickly moved his tall body to the side by several meters, without caring if his crotch was scraped and burned by the glazed tiles on the wall. Only when he thought he had kept a safe distance from me did he speak to me with his arms around the lamp core.

  "Go back to your room and sleep! And, that lightning bolt just now was meant for me. But its accuracy is limited, it struck the bamboo a few meters away from me instead. Your current distance from me is about the same as the distance between that struck bamboo and me!" I rolled my eyes and expressed my disdain towards this unrighteous junior brother before saying.

  "Hey? Brother, wait for me!" Seeing that I had jumped down from the wall and was heading towards the right wing of the house, he looked up at the sky, then back down at the piece of bamboo that had been reduced to a charred state, and hastily followed behind me, shouting. I'm sure he's figured it out by now - the safest place is actually where he thought was the most dangerous earlier.

  "Only by closely following in my footsteps and gathering tightly around me can you ensure your own safety." I said this as I pushed open the door in front of me with one hand. Then, without even looking back, I lay down to sleep, still wary of the lightning-like flashes of the fireflies.

  "Tell them these things today, I don't know if the two children can accept it." In the middle of the night, Shifu lay on the kang with a hard mat, and asked Qinglian Shibo who was sleeping opposite him. Apparently, according to his idea, these things were not yet to be told to us younger generation. But unfortunately, Qinglian Shibo was an impatient person, as if he was afraid that if he didn't finish tonight, he would pass away, so he hastily finished telling the story. What Shifu is most worried about now is me. He's not afraid that I'll be shocked, but rather that I'll run away overnight.

  "It's unbearable, but they have to accept it, this is their fate. From the day we made them our disciples, everything was already set in stone. Six Masters, we've been exhausted for this lifetime. Now, it's time to put down the burden and live out the rest of our days in peace." Qinglian Shibo said with a tired face as she lay on her bed. For decades, their generation of guardians had been exhausted. Their bodies were tired, but their hearts were even more so!

  "Wake up? Wake up?" Before dawn, Master rushed to the right wing of the house. He pushed open the door, lifted the quilt off me and started shouting.

  "Master, what's going on? It's still dark outside. I've been traveling all the way from Hubei and you're telling me to sleep some more!" From home to Wuhan, I took a 2-hour bus ride. After getting off the bus, I rushed to transfer trains and arrived in Hangzhou without stopping. This trip has exhausted me from sitting on vehicles. Now the only thing I want to do is sleep.

  "One's skills improve with diligence, so get up and go to the bamboo forest to practice breathing exercises." As soon as I thought about being lazy, my master immediately used my life to threaten me. This trick of his never fails. Indeed, before he could continue speaking, I had already gotten out of bed and started putting on my Taoist robe. A parent knows their child best, a master knows their apprentice best. This old man has got me figured out.

  "Hiss~huh!" Along with my deep breath, and then slowly exhaling. The fatigue on me also gradually disappeared, replaced by a kind of excitement! It seems like I want to find someone to fight, to release the excess energy in my body.

  I know, it's the qigong my master taught me that's taking effect! Of course, the qigong of Taoism itself only has the effect of quickly recovering from physical and mental fatigue. If you want to be like in the movies, where after a few rounds of qigong your abilities greatly improve and you can split rocks with a wave of your hand, that's just not possible. After all, we're not martial arts heroes!

  The activation of Taoist techniques is actually closely related to spiritual and physical strength. Anything, in fact, cannot be separated from these two aspects. It's just that the requirements for Taoist techniques are a bit higher. Drawing talismans, casting spells, and reciting scriptures all require the practitioner to focus their mind and execute them flawlessly, as any slight mistake can lead to failure. Practicing Qigong, on the other hand, can help you recover your physical and spiritual energy in the shortest amount of time possible. Of course, instantly restoring full health and mana is impossible.

  After practicing qigong for half an hour under the supervision of my master in the bamboo forest, the sky had just begun to brighten up. After slowly controlling my breathing rhythm and returning to normal breathing, the qigong practice was considered complete. Don't underestimate this final stage of winding down, if you don't follow the steps seriously, it may cause internal energy disorder. The previously restored accumulated energy may also cause some harm to your body.

  Just like qigong practitioners, if the steps of closing practice are not done well, it is very likely to cause abdominal pain, bloating, and loss of appetite. In the end, you may have to ask a qigong master to come and help guide out the stagnant qi in your body.

  "Memorize these spells and then come find me in the temple!" Master said to me after I finished my training, casually tossing over a thin booklet. I flipped it open and found that it was actually the "Six Ding Protection Spell" and the "Spirit Controlling Spell" that I had been eyeing for a long time! Back then, when Master defeated that white-haired monster, he used the Six Ding Protection Spell to go head-to-head with it. And the Spirit Controlling Spell is actually a spell that can control living creatures within a short period of time. If used properly, it can manipulate some enemies to defect and turn against each other, making them impossible to defend against!

  Interest is the driving force of learning, this statement is not false. Before this, I had been eyeing these two spells for a long time, but my master would always refuse to teach me with the excuse that the timing was not right. Unexpectedly, today I didn't ask him, and he took the initiative to pass on these two ultimate spells to me. In extreme joy, I quickly grasped the essence of the Six Ding Protection and the Spirit Control spells.

  "Big brother, you're done so quickly?" Seeing me walk out of the bamboo forest and stand on the grassy ground in front of the Lingquan Temple, he held a Buddhist scripture and asked with a bitter face.

  "Really! A few words, very simple!" I glanced at the yellowed manuscript in his hand and raised an eyebrow.

  "Alas! If only I had joined the Taoist sect earlier. My senior brother just recites a few lines, but I have to memorize this entire 'Diamond Sutra' without missing a single word." Lamp Grass waved the scripture in his hand at me and began to lament in a low voice.

  "Lazybones, you're slacking off again. If you can't recite it before lunch, then don't eat lunch. If you still can't recite it before dinner, don't blame me for not preparing dinner for you either." Before he could even finish speaking, the monk was caught. Hearing the old monk's somewhat ethereal voice coming from the temple, Monk Deng suddenly furrowed his brow and looked solemn as he flipped open the scripture, reading aloud in a sonorous tone.

  Just like my weakness is to cherish life and avoid danger, the weakness of Deng Cao is food. You can beat him, insult him, make him do this and that, he won't get angry, but if you cut off his food, this guy will be ready to fight at any time. Unfortunately, facing Qinglian Shibo who raised him up, he didn't have the guts to fight back. As for his own master, he couldn't beat or scold him, so poor Deng Cao's only way out was to recite scriptures by heart. So, in front of the gate of Lingquan Temple, it was like a swarm of flies buzzing around all day long.

  "Are you sure this will work?" asked the master, looking up from his game of Go with Qinglian Shibo in the side room.

  "I say he can do it! He must be able to do it." Qinglian Shibo said with a proud tone.