Chapter Fifty-One: Exchange Conditions

  Zhang Daocheng saw Wang Chanru stop, and he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief: "It's not that I'm having trouble with my Thunder Technique, Liu Laosan wouldn't have died! But the dead are already gone, there's no use talking about it. You and I didn't have any grudges to begin with, so naturally we don't need to fight anymore."

  Wang Zhen sneered: "Whether or not to continue fighting, what you say doesn't count! Wanting to put an end to the conflict isn't impossible either. Tell me, what do you want with Zhou Lin?"

  With a vigorous wave of his hand, he cut off Zhang Daocheng's words. Wang Chan stood at the door with his hands hanging down, his five fingers spread apart, and still hadn't retracted his tiger claws. His eyes stared straight at Zhang Daocheng's face, not giving him any room to speak further. He got straight to the point and asked the question that was on his mind.

  And he, with his fur standing on end, the muscles between his neck and back taut like steel, faced Zhang Daocheng without changing his overbearing nature in the slightest. He would turn hostile and fight to the death as soon as the other party said something that didn't meet his expectations.

  "There is something on him that is the lost treasure of Mount Tai's Taichang Temple from years ago!" It was clear that few people had ever spoken to him in such a stern tone, and upon hearing Wang Chan's words, Zhang Daocheng's face flashed with anger for an instant. However, taking another look at Wang Chan's current stance, which seemed like an arrow on the string, as if he might strike at any moment, Zhang Daocheng let out a sigh in his heart and forcibly suppressed the flames of rage in his chest.

  "What stuff? He just smuggled a batch of lost cultural relics back from Russia not long ago. Your Qing Palace is also the orthodox Taoist, how could there be what you want inside?"

  Wang Chan thought to himself, "Indeed it is so!" He didn't know what kind of precious things Zhou Lin had brought back from Russia, but they had already led to a string of unexpected events. First, there was the matter with Young Master Lin that hadn't gone well, forcing him to flee to Beijing for help and dragging Wang Chan into the mess, making it impossible for him to have any peace. Now, this Taoist from Mount Cangshan had appeared out of nowhere, swearing that his family's lost treasure was inside those things - it was simply absurd.

  Zhang Daocheng saw Wang Chan's disbelieving face, and he also steeled himself, opening his mouth to say: "Since I've already started talking, I'm not afraid to tell you the truth. That thing is of no use to you anyway. As long as you promise that what I say today will not be passed on to anyone else, I'll tell you everything."

  Knowing Wang Chan was a man of such character, with a mind like one, typical of not seeing the rabbit and not releasing the hawk, even if he hit the south wall, he would not turn back. He himself did not have the ability to capture him, forcing and compelling, and still wanting to get news of Zhou Lin from his mouth. At this point, Zhang Daocheng's heart was in turmoil, and he also stopped hiding.

  However, it turned out that he was from the Taiching Palace of Mount Hua, a branch of the Quanzhen School during the Song and Jin dynasties. It was called the "Sui Shan Sect", and its founder was Liu Chuxuan, one of the seven great disciples under the Quanzhen School's Zhongyang Zhenren.

  According to legend, the founder of Quanzhen, before establishing the complete truth, met an immortal on Mount Zhongnan who enlightened him. In the hands of Pure Yang True Man Lü Dongbin and Zhengyang Patriarch Zhongli Quan, he obtained seven "Tian Gang Stones" that recorded the mysteries of heaven and earth. He then transformed Confucianism into Taoism, built the "Living Dead Tomb" on Mount Zhongnan, grasped yin and yang, broke through life and death, and cultivated the complete truth.

  Later, Wang Chongyang traveled to Shandong in the east and accepted Ma Yu, Sun Bu'er, Wang Zhe, Qiu Chuji, Tan Chuduan, Liu Tongwei, Hao Datong as his seven disciples. They were also known as the "Seven True Disciples of Quanzhen" or the "Northern Seven Immortals" of Taoism. Each of them established their own sects and transmitted the Taoist teachings: Ma Yu founded the Yuxian Sect, Qiu Chuji founded the Longmen Sect, Tan Chuduan founded the Nanwu Sect, Liu Tongwei founded the Suishan Sect, Hao Datong founded the Huashan Sect, Wang Zhe founded the Quanzhen Sect, and Sun Bu'er founded the Qingjing Sect.

  And among them, Qiu Chuji and his Longmen sect had the greatest influence.

  "So it was, as you said, after the True Man of Chung Yang ascended to immortality, he gave each of the seven heavenly garrison stones to one of his seven disciples, with each person taking care of one stone. However, later on, when the Dragon Gate Sect became powerful and the other families weakened, they were able to obtain the heavenly garrison stones from the descendants of the other six families after several generations. They secretly kept them in the White Cloud Temple in the capital city. As a result, when the Eight-Nation Alliance looted the capital, they also took everything from the White Cloud Temple, and so the seven heavenly garrison stones were scattered again, with no one knowing where they ended up!"

  After listening to Zhang Daocheng, Wang Chan suddenly had a few points of enlightenment in his heart, knowing that the old Taoist's words were probably not false. Zhou Lin's batch of things was originally looted by the Tsarist Russia when they plundered the Yuanmingyuan and the Imperial Palace, and the timing was also just right, without any difference.

  "Not bad, back then when the ancestor of the Re Yang sect passed away, he had said that all his life's Daoist teachings were obtained from those seven Tian Gang stones. The stones hold great secrets, which cannot be transmitted orally or mentally, but rather depend on individual luck. That's why one stone was given to each of the seven disciples under him. Unfortunately, later on, things changed and the divine continent suffered a disaster. In this life, it is hopeless to see the true face of the Tian Gang stones again. However, just a few days ago, I suddenly received news from an old friend in the capital that one of the Tian Gang stones has appeared, and its owner is none other than Zhou Lin, who is far away in Hu Lin. So, I have told you all the reasons, I don't know if you can sympathize with my foolish heart and tell me where Zhou Lin is!" Zhang Dao Cheng's eyes were fixed intently on Wang Chan."

  "That day, the heavenly stone you mentioned is a green rhombus-shaped stone, just like this one I have, exactly the same!" Wang Chan suddenly made a strange face and beckoned to Zhang Daocheng, opening his chest and revealing the blue-green stone that Zhou Lin had given him, holding it in his hand and shaking it back and forth.

  "Ancestor is above, heavens! It's actually the heavenly Sky-Piercing Stone, its color is like the blue sky. The dragon rises, it's exactly that treasure of my Random Mountain Sect!" As soon as Wang Chanliang took out this stone from his chest, Zhang Daocheng's eyes lit up, he shouted and jumped high into the air, just about to rush forward, but Wang Chan retreated back, covering the stone, his tiger-like eyes gleaming with sharp light, letting out a low growl, making a gesture as if to pounce.

  "Ah!" Zhang Daocheng exclaimed, hastily stopping in his tracks. His eyes were fixed intently on Wang Chan's chest, afraid that he might be misunderstood. He took two steps back, shaking his hands and muttering to himself in a unclear voice. A look of extreme joy was on his face, making others feel embarrassed. Especially noticeable was the rapid rise and fall of his chest, his breathing becoming urgently short.

  "Don't misunderstand, don't misunderstand! I just want to see things more clearly, absolutely no malice whatsoever."

  "So this stone is the Tian Feng Stone you were talking about! I won't hide it from you, this stone was a gift from Zhou Lin to me, so if you want to find him, you might as well come find me." Wang Chan also stared at Zhang Daocheng for a while, combining what the two had just said, and a hint of a smile flashed in his eyes.

  "This stone is just an ordinary ornament to me, wearing it on my body is useless, but to you, it's more precious than anything in the world. So if you want it, I won't refuse, just exchange something with me."

  "What do you want? As long as it's something I have, just open your mouth and ask for it. Everything is yours except this life of mine!" Zhang Daocheng's face lit up with joy upon hearing these words. He was afraid that Wang Chan wouldn't be willing to make a deal with him, being stubborn and difficult to communicate with. Now that the other party had taken the initiative to make a request, things were naturally taking a turn for the better, leaving room for compromise.

  As for what Wang Chan had taken a fancy to, Zhang Daocheng didn't give it the slightest consideration. The Tian Gang stone was far too important to him. If he hadn't known that Wang Chan's skills were exceptional, he wouldn't have had any way of winning. He was afraid that if Wang Chan had only flashed out the Tian Gang stone earlier, Zhang Daocheng would already have been unable to resist taking action and killing him to snatch it.

  As long as one is human, there will be desires in their heart. It seems that even a cultivator like him, who claims to be unmoved by worldly things and views wealth and honor as fleeting clouds, still has a difference between what he says and does. He may not be greedy for wealth or lust after beauty, and may look down on the desires of ordinary people in the mortal world, but when faced with something he truly yearns for, he is no different from an ordinary person.

  "Living dead, living dead, wind, fire, earth and water are all just causes. In the grave, I take the elixir of immortality every day, exchanging my mortal body for a pinch of dust. Living dead, living dead, to die in life is a good cause, in the quiet and stillness of the tomb, cut off from the worldly dust... This was a poem by Wang Chongyang, the founder of your Quanzhen School, which I have also read. However, since ancient times, the Taoist path has been unverifiable, and those who can live forever and ascend to heaven are almost all fabrications of the world."

  "It seems that you, the ancestor of Chongyang, are one of the five northern ancestors of Taoism, and can be mentioned in the same breath as Lü Dongbin and Han Zhongli among the Eight Immortals. But in the end, didn't you also die on the way back to Kaifeng, unable to achieve immortality? So even if there are secrets hidden within this Heavenly Punishment Stone, I won't bother with them. As long as you clearly explain that set of thunder magic you used earlier and satisfy me, I'll hand over the stone and let you leave."

  In internal cultivation, the five thunders belong to the five organs. The thunder method emphasizes the cultivation of "internal elixir" and advocates for "using the Tao as the foundation". Once the internal elixir is formed, it can be used to create various magical transformations and mysterious techniques. In martial arts, if you remove the parts about writing talismans and reciting incantations from the thunder method, what's left is the purest method of forming the internal elixir. As soon as the internal elixir is formed, all acquired energy will be eliminated, allowing for marrow washing, blood exchange, fetal transformation, and bone transformation, truly entering the legendary prenatal realm.

  Wang Zhen's horizontal training method also has a method of condensing the inner elixir, and it is all-encompassing, from head to toe, with even greater effectiveness. However, he saw that Zhang Daocheng was still unable to grasp the yuan and guard the one to form the inner elixir, yet he could still display his thunderous methods. He guessed that this old Daoist must have a secret method to take a shortcut, perhaps to help him achieve the great accomplishment of forming the elixir earlier.

  Since ancient times, almost all immortals have been legendary existences, and it seems that no one else has seen them with their own eyes except for the person involved! Therefore, Wang Chan also didn't have the mind to pay attention to longevity, but instead focused on practicing boxing, firming his heart, and pursuing it to the end. However, in order to achieve great success in boxing, he would need at least three to five more years of time, which is not short. Now, with Zhang Daocheng suddenly appearing, Wang Chan's heart immediately arose with the intention of learning the alchemy method of the Taoist school.

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