Chapter Seventy-two Overnight Stay

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  Chen Jianchen carried a book bag, set up the fabric canopy on the wooden frame, and from a distance, he looked like a small sedan chair. In fact, this canopy can only play a general role, for example, when it's windy or rainy, it won't work, mainly as a hat to block the sun and prevent sunburn without any problem.

  Chen Jianchen wore a white Confucian robe, with a Confucian hat on his head and a book bag on his back, which was a typical image of a poor scholar going out to study.

  It's all because rich scholars don't need to carry heavy book bags themselves. They have servants or book boys to do the work for them, so they can walk around with a carefree attitude, shaking their fans and enjoying life.

  Chen Jianchen suddenly thought of the image of Leslie Cheung in "A Chinese Ghost Story", who was also dressed like this when he first appeared. Compared to him, who had been traveling through wind and rain, and was disheveled and miserable, Chen Jianchen felt relatively easy-going.

  Chen Jianchen had no means of transportation, the small donkey he used to have was sold long ago and couldn't be used for a long time, as for horses and carriages, they were rare things that were hard to come by. So, there was only walking left.

  If it were an ordinary weak scholar, walking tens of miles would be unbearable, and maybe after walking a few hundred meters, blisters would appear on the soles of their feet and they would be exhausted to death. But Chen Jianchen was accustomed to early training, his footsteps were swift as flying, and he walked for more than two hours without feeling tired.

  At noon, Chen Jianchen saw the outline of Jingyang Village, but he didn't go in. Instead, he went around from the side and headed straight to Fengshan.

  It's another autumn, and Maple Mountain has entered the peak tourist season. However, due to the rain over the past few days, travel was inconvenient, so there were no literary travelers from the city on the road. Otherwise, with Chen Jianchen's outfit, he could have at least hitched a ride.

  Chen Jianchen left the city alone and rushed to Fengshan. In fact, his purpose was not entirely to find Yining. On the one hand, the mountains behind Fengshan were vast and continuous, and he didn't know where Yining's cave was located, so finding it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. On the other hand, he chose this period to leave Jiangzhou mainly to avoid that annoying Hongfa Conference.

  The Jiangzhou City Dharma Convention lasted for three days, a huge venue was set up in the city square, every day blowing the Dharma conch, high monks took turns to give lectures, and under the stage were believers as numerous as trees...

  Extremely lively, lively to the point of being almost annoying.

  Compared to the Taoist way of my carefree wandering, the Buddhist school's proposition is to open a convenient door for all, allowing everyone in the world to enter. As the saying goes, "Put down your butcher knife and become a Buddha on the spot." Even if you are a demon king with blood-stained hands, as long as you are willing to reform and put down your butcher knife, you can also become a Buddha.

  Such claims make the threshold of Buddhism extremely low, so low that it is almost zero, and it is easy to gain a huge mass base. Or perhaps because of this, the Tianyun dynasty has been anti-Buddhist throughout its history, maybe they are afraid that the expansion speed of Buddhism will be too fast, which will shake the foundation of the country.

  This time, for some reason, Emperor Zhengming went against his ancestors' teachings and began to promote Buddhism.

  Chen Jianchen was not in the imperial court, and did not know about the numerous changes that were taking place, but he still vaguely sensed a "storm is coming" feeling. From Qing Yun Daozhang's words "when a country is about to perish, there must be evil omens", to Nie Zhiyuan's demotion, Chen Jianchen could roughly infer some unusual trends.

  This is the general trend.

  Under the overwhelming trend, an individual's power often appears pale and powerless.

  This is also the root of Chen Jianchen's careful handling of things, he always deeply hides his innermost thoughts and does not show off to defy heaven.

  It's still unclear how the weather will change at this point...

  Only by being wise and cautious can one protect oneself.

  There is no doubt that Chen Jianchen has not yet reached the supreme state of "worrying before the world worries, and rejoicing after the world rejoices". He estimates that to reach that step, the realm of "San Li Zhen Zhang" is roughly equivalent to "establishing virtue".

  This requires accumulation, continuous learning, reflection, enlightenment and breakthrough. Apart from form, the "Three-Character Canon" and martial arts, Taoist rituals, etc. are essentially the same, only without clear hierarchical divisions, even more mysterious.

  Sometimes, Chen Jianchen even suspects that the true origin of "Sanli Zhenzhang" may just be a layer of Confucian skin, and feels that there are still many mysterious secrets inside that he has not figured out.

  Or, to truly understand, one must cultivate the highest "establishing virtue" realm, establishing virtue can be immortal. At that time, his world of Mud Ball Palace will be completely clear and distinct, the evil-warding brush, that mysterious person who can only see the back, will all reveal their true face.

  It can be said that Chen Jianchen has been exploring a path that suits himself all along.

  There is a saying that "knowledge and action are united", which sounds grand, but in reality, many situations often have knowledge without action. There is no other reason, only the constraints of real-world conditions, which limit actual behavior. For example, how can you do charity if you don't have money? How can you be brave and righteous if you don't have power?

  Having the heart but lacking the ability, in the end it all boils down to empty talk.

  Chen Jianchen has always been pursuing power.

  Pluralism of power, in the mortal world, power is undoubtedly one of the sources of strength; while facing demons and monsters, various cultivators, the vast and righteous energy is the reliance for safety and survival.

  How to organically combine the two is a question Chen Jianchen has been thinking about.

  ……

  In the late afternoon, Chen Jianchen had arrived at the place where he first met Yīn Níng and the wolf demon. He ate some dry rations and then found a suitable spot to spend the night. He wasn't afraid of being attacked by wild beasts with Móu Yāo around.

  Loyalty is the best guardian.

  Don't look at its small size, it doesn't have a good appearance, but isn't it also a yaojing realm demon? Ordinary birds and beasts don't dare to challenge the mouse demon, they keenly sensed the aura and fled in advance.

  With a little luck, finding Yining is relatively easy.

  The bonfire rose, Chen Jianchen had not yet fallen asleep, sitting upright, borrowing the firelight to read books - his book bag was filled with several books, which could alleviate the loneliness of the journey.

  Living in a deep mountain, lighting a fire, reading poetry and books. If people knew about it, they would scold Chen Jianchen as a madman.

  In fact, some bookish scholars, before the imperial examination arrives, in order to focus on reading, would not hesitate to leave their groups and live in seclusion, moving away from cities and villages, and building thatched cottages in certain scenic mountain ridges, where they would move in and diligently read poetry and books.

  In Zhuge Wudong's "Youweidang Youji", there are many stories, the protagonist of which is this kind of bookworm. When they read under the lamp at night, they will encounter beautiful and kind fox fairies, after a entanglement, red sleeves add fragrance, finally embracing the beauty to return home, performing a vivid oriental version of a fairy tale.

  Chen Jianchen knew that these stories all had a certain basis in reality. Because inside this Maple Mountain, there was a kind and lovely fox spirit named Ning, only he didn't know if it would come out tonight or not.

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