Chapter Seventeen: Eternal Disciple of Mount Pong

  As a Taoist, one should greet each new day with a full spirit. Zhang Lingsheng was an ordinary Taoist who always followed this rule. He got up when the sky was just getting light, took 18 deep breaths, knocked his teeth nine times, then walked out of his room and did some bone-strengthening exercises in the fresh air, immediately feeling like he had lost a few pounds.

  Zhang Lingsheng moved a table and stool out of the room, arranged pen, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table, and also brought out a notebook that was already half old. He flipped through it page by page until he reached the blank page before stopping. He picked up his pen and wrote down "Dao Tong 57th generation, year 628" in neat characters. Putting down his pen, he coughed once and shouted towards the room on the other side of the courtyard: "Everyone come over."

  Several pairs of eyes stared at him from the window, observing for a long time. Upon hearing the shout, the young men of Ye Lin Town immediately ran out of the room and gathered around. This was a group of homeless people who had not fully recovered from their grief and shock, eagerly hoping to gain recognition of their new home.

  "Fall in line." Zhang Lingsheng said, his voice not very stern.

  The young men behaved extremely well and were obviously eager to give a good impression to adults. Zhang Lingsheng was satisfied with this.

  "Cough." Zhang Lingsheng held his brush in his right hand, sat up straight and said seriously, "First of all, congratulations to you. You've been in Jinghu Village for ten days now, and the masters and heads of the mountain have finally... agreed to accept you as disciples of Pong Mountain."

  The disheartened young men showed a hint of relief on their faces.

  "Actually, the mountain gate only opens in November every year. You've come too early, it's only July 4th, still four months away. You'll have to stay in Jinghu Village for now, and I - Zhang Lingshen will teach you some basic Taoist skills and mountain gate rules."

  The young men also puffed out their chests.

  "The first step, I will register your names, places of origin and birthdays in the book." Zhang Lingsheng pointed to the book on the table, "Every word written on this will be permanently preserved on Mount Pang, until the end of time, it can prove that you are disciples of Mount Pang."

  Zhang Lingsheng dipped his pen in ink and said to the young man who was ranked first: "Start with you, what's your name?"

  "Little Autumn."

  "Zhang Lingsheng furrowed his brow, 'What's your surname.'"

  "Mu." Xia Qiu thought for a moment before saying, it wasn't that she had forgotten her surname, but rather that it was never mentioned and felt somewhat awkward to bring up.

  "Is it the wood that can be entered into three parts? Or is it the solemn Mu? Or perhaps another wood?"

  "It's just Mu..." Xia Qiu struggled to write in the air, he had only been in school for less than a month and hadn't recognized many characters at that time, now he had almost forgotten them.

  Zhang Lingsheng held his pen for too long, and a drop of ink fell onto the notebook, ruining the perfect blank page. Zhang Lingsheng hastily grabbed a rag to blot it, but the ink stain remained.

  Xiao Qiu and the other young people stared at him with eager eyes, Zhang Lingsheng's face suddenly turned red, he knew what these little guys were expecting, but he couldn't do it. "As long as you enter Jinghu Village, it counts as entering Pangshan Territory, no one is allowed to cast any spells."

  A soft voice came from the back of the team and replied on behalf of Xiao Qiu: "Admire."

  Er Liangsheng was afraid that others wouldn't know, so he loudly said in the middle of the crowd: "Fang Fang is Xiao Qiu's wife."

  The boys burst out laughing, but Zhang Lingsheng was not very happy, thinking that the children were joking. "Quiet," he said sternly. "Mu Xiaqiu?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "Native place."

  "Where are you from?"

  "Where were you born?"

  "In the forest."

  Zhang Lingsheng shook his head and wrote down "Xijiguoxiaoerbao Yelinzhen", then asked: "Birthdate, what year and day were you born?"

  "This I know: in the year 102 of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing dynasty, on the seventh day of the fourth month."

  "You're twelve years old this year." Zhang Lingsheng said with his mouth, but what he wrote on the book was "The 37th generation of Taoist orthodoxy, 616 years, April 7th".

  "Next."

  "My surname is Shen, and I'm called Er Bing. I was born in the big house on the east side of our home..."

  "Wait, you're Shen Erchuang?"

  "Right."

  "What kind of name is this?" Zhang Lingsheng had a bad premonition, didn't write on the notebook, and asked the young man behind him, "What's your name?"

  "My surname is Mu, and I'm called Lengzi."

  "My name is Shen Daliang."

  "Shen Erlang."

  The boys reported their names one by one, and Zhang Lingsheng's eyebrows became more and more furrowed. When he heard "Zhao Xiaogou", he couldn't bear it anymore, threw his pen on the table, and left another ink stain on the notebook that had only written a few words.

  "Did your parents give you such a name?" Zhang Lingsheng was indignant, "Our Pangshan is one of the nine major Daoist sects, and all our disciples are extraordinary talents. In the future, when traveling around the world, will you call yourselves 'Pangshan Zhao Xiaogou' and 'Pangshan Mu Dazi'?"

  The young men had never thought that their names were inappropriate, but now they heard Zhang Lingsheng say it, and indeed there was something not quite right. Zhang Lingsheng sighed, "Don't you have a great name or a school name?"

  "My surname is Shen, and my name is Haohao, Tianhaohao." Er Biao hastily said.

  Zhang Lingsheng picked up his pen again and said as he wrote: "This is more like what a disciple of Pongshan would mean."

  "I also have a great name, given by Mr. Qin himself, called Mu Fei Huang." The second fool reported his name.

  In Ye Lin Town, more than half of the children's names were given by Mr. Qin. Under Zhang Lingsheng's pressure, the young people thought of their other names: Dalang was called Shen Xiuming, Erlang was called Shen Xiuwei, Xiaoshun was called Shen Tongyou, Xiaogou was called Zhao Dayi, and Zhuzi was called Guan Jinwu.

  Zhang Lingsheng nodded frequently and wrote quickly, finally asking Fangfang, "And you, what's your name?"

  Fang's face turned slightly red, and every person in front mentioned Mr. Qin, which made her mood increasingly depressed. Er Shuang saw that she didn't want to talk, so he spoke up: "I know, I've seen it on the marriage certificate, Fang is called Qin Lingxue."

  "Fang Fang? Qin Ling Shuang? An ancient saying goes 'Fragrance does not see frost', your name has some meaning, was it Mr. Qin who gave it to you?"

  "Mr. Qin is my father," Fangfang said softly, her head bowed, her voice choked with emotion, but she didn't cry.

  Zhang Lingsheng nodded solemnly, knowing the experience of Ye Lin Town. He immediately forgave the ignorance of these young people and finished recording. Then he looked at the first one again and asked: "You're called Mu Xiaoqiu, didn't Mr. Qin give you a school name?"

  Xiao Qiu had been thinking for half a day already, "There... can't think of it."

  "Because Xia Qiu and Fang Fang played a game of make-believe marriage, Mr. Qin forbade him from taking another step into the school."

  "Nonsense." Zhang Lingsheng shook his head and prepared to put down his pen. "Then let's call her Murong Xiaoqiu."

  "He has a scholarly name," Fangfang said hastily, her cheeks even redder. "It's Mu Xingqiu, with 'Xing' meaning 'star' as in 'starry sky'."

  The boys burst out laughing together, and Xia Qiu's face also turned red. He thought Fang Fang would have forgotten all the previous things cleanly.

  Zhang Lingsheng had no choice but to lightly wipe away the character for "small" and change it to the character for "to go", then let out a deep breath and said, "The nine of you have relatively special circumstances."

  "There is still one person," said Xia Qiu.

  "Where?" Zhang Lingsheng was perplexed.

  "He came out with us, but was killed by the snake demon. Can... can his name also be remembered?"

  The young men remembered Baldy and all looked at Zhang Lingsheng with anticipation.

  "How can a dead person become a disciple of Pong Mountain? There's no such precedent in Pong Mountain." Zhang Ling shook his head in refusal, but seeing the disappointment written all over the young men's faces, he softened again. "Alright, alright... I'll just write down the name, without recording the hometown and birthdate."

  The boys put their heads together in a circle, whispered for a while, and finally it was Xia Qiu who spoke up, "The bald man's name is Mu Songxuan, the song of the pine tree, the xuan of the Xuanwu Army."

  Zhang Lingsheng did not continue writing in sequence, but instead wrote the three words "Mu Songxuan" on the blank space next to those two ink marks.

  The registration is finally complete, and Zhang Lingsheng feels it necessary to remind the new disciples a few words. "From now on, you are all Pangshan disciples. No matter how far you can go in your cultivation path, the four words 'Pangshan Dao Tong' will always follow you. Therefore..." He made a more severe expression, "You are not allowed to call each other by nicknames from now on, only by formal names. What's with Er Shuang, Xiao Gou, and Leng Zi? They're all forbidden, you must forget them completely."

  The young men nodded, feeling as if they had returned to Mr. Qin's school once again.

  "Can't Xia Qiu be called?" Er Zhuo Shen Hao had doubts in his heart and asked, "You just said he could call Mu Xiaoqiu."

  Zhang Lingsheng's head started to ache, it seemed that he was destined to have no refreshing day today. "Uh, okay, but you guys try your best to call him Murong Qiuxia."

  The boys laughed, and each of them called out "Little Autumn Brother" in their hearts, rather than "Mu Xingqiu".

  "You are special." Zhang Lingsheng wanted to extricate himself from a pile of names, and hurriedly continued, "The time it takes to produce the Dao root is very short, and I know almost nothing about cultivating the Dao. So during these four months living at the foot of the mountain, I allow you to ask questions freely - but only ask things related to cultivating the Dao."

  "Shen Hao immediately raised a concern that all the young people were worried about, 'How did the demon breed drive away all the people in the town? Where did they go? Are the people in the town dead or alive? Can we find them again in the future?'"

  Zhang Lingsheng regretted it, "I've never been to Yelin Town... Besides, this matter has nothing to do with cultivation, I won't answer."

  Xiao Qiu also had a question that had been bottled up in her heart for several days, "Why doesn't the head of the Secret Department like us? We don't even know him and haven't offended him."

  Zhang Lingsheng became increasingly embarrassed, "This has nothing to do with cultivation..."

  "But isn't the abbot a person of high status? He doesn't like us and we can't focus on our cultivation, it's quite related."

  Zhang Lingsheng thought that Mu Xun would be a troublesome little guy from now on. After thinking for a moment, he said: "Anyway, this is under the mountain, so it's okay to say some inside information. You know, the biggest enemy of cultivators is demons. There are external demons, which are the demonic species you've encountered before, and there are internal demons. Even if you become disciples of Mount Peng, you must be vigilant at all times during cultivation, or you might fall into the demonic path."

  Zhang Lingsheng had one hand on the table and the other pointing at the towering Old Ancestor Peak, "The Pangshan Dao lineage is divided into ten departments, among which the disciples of the Forbidden Secrets Department are the easiest to become demonic, almost half of them have this problem. Even those who don't become demonic will become strange and bizarre. The head of the Forbidden Secrets Department has a nickname, 'Left Half Crazy', he pays more attention to this matter than anyone else. In fact, this is also a good thing, after all, you've been in contact with demonic creatures, having some pressure is good."

  The joy of becoming a disciple of Pong-san has weakened a lot, and the thought of being stared at by a half-mad first seat makes the young men feel a chill run down their spines.

  On the top of a thousand-meter-high peak, there were indeed two pairs of eyes staring at the young men in Ye Lin Town.

  Master Ning Qiwei knocked over the copper mirror on the table and said to Zuo Liu Ying, the head of the Forbidden Department: "Everyone agrees to give them a chance. The matter of Mo Zhong Sheng's root is worth exploring. They will be under strict surveillance, and as soon as they show any signs of demonic possession, they will be handed over to you for disposal."

  Zuo Liu Ying nodded, he couldn't get the support of other heads, so he had to compromise with Zong Shi, but he would use his own way to keep an eye on these young people, never stopping until he proved that his initial judgment was correct.

  (Collection needed, recommendation needed)