novelsite Chapter 566: Meeting the Crazy Taoist Priest at Night
Chapter 566: Meeting the Crazy Taoist Priest at Night
After the shock comes the surprise, but unexpectedly, the next second, there is another shock.
A fist-sized hole instantly appeared on the cracked windshield, and a big hand reached in and pressed me down on the seat.
"Master! What are you doing!"
"Luckily, fortunately, I made it in time. You almost got away, little layman."
"Why are you running? I'm not running! Let go!"
He let go of me and just sat on the hood.
I immediately opened the door and got out, walked quickly around the car, then looked up at the night sky. Where did he jump from?
Unable to figure it out, I respectfully clasped my fists and said, "I haven't seen you for a few days. I hope you are well, Taoist priest. I wonder why you are looking for me?"
The crazy Taoist priest stood on the hood and said, "A few days ago, the layman promised me something, but he forgot."
"What did I promise?"
"Oh, I see. Are you referring to that Taoist Priest Qiu?"
He stroked his graying beard and smiled, "That's right. My time is numbered. Please lead the way, young layman."
"Could it be the hidden injury from that night? Taoist priest, are you saying you're going to die soon? How many days do you have left to live?"
"No, no, what I meant is that I don't have much time left here, and those people can't hurt me."
"You scared me! Why are you breathing so hard when you speak? The situation is this: Taoist priest, I have something urgent to do. Can we make an appointment to go tomorrow night? Or the day after tomorrow is also fine."
He shook his head, meaning no, he had to go now.
I looked at the time. It would be dawn in a few hours. My boss was still waiting for my reply. It was not close from here to Dongshan, at least dozens of kilometers, and I had to walk a long way up the mountain. But I couldn't refuse something I had already promised.
"Then let's go, Taoist Priest, please get in the car."
He jumped onto the roof of the car, sat down cross-legged and said, "You can just sit here."
"Master, you can't sit on the roof of the car! It will be unsafe if I drive too fast!"
He waved his hand and told me to go ahead.
"No, the key is that there are cameras at several intersections ahead. My car doesn't have complete documents and cannot be photographed. Please forgive me, Taoist Priest."
"trouble."
He muttered a few words and got into the car reluctantly.
Seeing me wearing my seat belt, he pulled it over and hung it around his neck.
I told him, "Master, you don't need to tie it." But he wanted to take it off, but somehow it got tangled.
I reached out to help, but he exerted so much force that he tore the seat belt apart at the base.
I didn't dare say anything, let alone blame others. A good car had become like this. The windshield was broken, and I guess I needed someone to make sheet metal for the roof.
I looked at him from time to time on the way. He kept his eyes closed the whole time. Needless to say, he must be awake now.
"Um... Taoist Priest, you asked me to take care of a stray kitten, saying it represented hope for life. Because of that kitten, I went to a friend's house, and three days ago, my aunt was awakened by the cat at my friend's house. You told me before that no one in the world could save her, but this time, it wasn't a human who saved her. Taoist Priest, did you already predict all this?"
He didn't reply, his eyes were closed, as if he was asleep.
My nose felt a little sore, and I sniffed, "Shit Wuchang can't speak. I'm bringing him to express his gratitude to you. After this incident, Shit Wuchang has changed. He's no longer blindly following orders. He has his own ideas and is looking forward to his future life. Although he hasn't said it explicitly, I know that deep down he regards you as a role model. He even set a goal for himself: to surpass you, Taoist Priest, in twenty years."
The crazy Taoist priest opened his eyes and said calmly, "Twenty years is just a blink of an eye. What a shame for such a genius. He was able to break the limitations of the Three Corpses and Six Armors with just a meditation diagram. What a shame. A fake corpse beheading is not a real corpse beheading. Not to mention twenty years, he will never be able to surpass me in this lifetime."
I frowned and asked, "If one day he completely eliminates the three corpses, will he become heartless and desireless? Or... only those who are heartless, desireless, and have no desires can reach that state?"
“It’s not about being heartless and desireless, but about being inaction and selfless.”
"Master, what does it mean to be inaction and selfless?"
The crazy Taoist priest looked calm: "Wuweiwuego refers to a person's state of mind, which has been clearly explained in the Tao Te Ching."
“Isn’t that the Tao Te Ching?”
The crazy Taoist priest shook his head: "The Tao Te Ching has been misrepresented for thousands of years. One word is different, and the difference is huge."
I slowed down the car and said, "Not only is the Taoist master's martial arts unrivaled, but he also seems to have a deep understanding of Taoist culture."
"To be honest with you, Taoist Priest, I have admired Taoists since I was a child. I wanted to tell people's fortunes and predict their death. Unfortunately, when I grew up, I accidentally became a thief. One is a Taoist, the other is a thief. There is a difference of one character, but there is a world of difference between us."
Suddenly, a pothole appeared on the road ahead, and there was a lot of water in it. I asked casually, "Master, can you tell me what the four characters 'Tai Yi Sheng Shui' in this sect mean?"
The crazy Taoist priest smiled slightly and said a slightly difficult piece of ancient Chinese to me.
After hearing this, I gradually fell into deep thought.
After a few minutes, I said, puzzled, "I see. So that's how it is. Taiyi must have given birth to water, and water gave birth to Taiyi, forming the sky. The sky in turn supported Taiyi, forming the earth. The sky and the earth complemented each other to form the gods. The gods complemented each other to form yin and yang. Yin and yang blended to form the four seasons. The four seasons blended to form cold and heat. The cold and heat blended to form dryness and wetness. The dryness and wetness blended to form years. Years are age. When a person's years end, everything will return to the starting point. This is a cycle from broad to close, from big to small, and it repeats itself over and over again."
There was a glimmer of light in the eyes of the crazy Taoist priest. He looked at me and asked, "What is Taiyi?"
I thought about it carefully again, then pointed to a shining star in the sky and said, "That's what the ancients first thought was Taiyi, right? It's the North Star. Taiyi creates water, so when people at that time saw it raining, they thought it was caused by the stars."
After hearing this, the radiance in the Crazy Taoist's eyes grew even brighter. He said, "Young layman, you are extremely intelligent and have a certain affinity with the Dao. No wonder you were able to meet that Taoist Qiu. It's a pity that you have only average martial arts talent, otherwise I would have liked to accept you as my disciple."
I hurriedly said, "Master, I'm going to be honest. I don't believe that Master Qiu really existed. The face I saw at that time must have been an illusion, a fantasy. The hot spring water is hallucinogenic. If people accidentally ingest it, they will see all kinds of scenes. I have a friend who also drank the water. At that time, he saw his girlfriend, and his girlfriend has been dead for several years."
"No, no..."
I muttered to myself, correcting myself, "Master Qiu really existed. The scene I saw wasn't real. His common name is unknown. According to Southern Song history books, he was born in Shan County, Yuezhou, which is today's Shengzhou, Zhejiang. Fang La was already dead by the third year of Xuanhe, and he gathered his troops to rebel under Fang La's banner. According to my research, Master Qiu respected Fang La very much during his lifetime, even worshipping him. The secret realm beneath the Dragon Cave in Dongshan was built by him and several wealthy people in Qingxi County at the time. His purpose might have been to resurrect Fang La using a secret method, but he failed."
"Have you ever heard of the fox saliva method, Taoist priest? Does Taoism really have such a thing?"
The crazy Taoist priest frowned instantly.
I whispered, "Over seven hundred years later, this person's body hadn't even rotted when we first found it! The body was covered in raw lacquer, a lacquer corpse unlike anything I've ever seen. It was terrifying."
"Where is its body?"
"It's on a small island. The island doesn't have a name. Because there's often heavy fog at night, we call it Mist Island. But we buried it then. The weather has been a bit hot these past two months, so it might have rotted away."
At this moment, my cell phone suddenly rang. It was Douyazai calling.
I turned around and looked at the phone.
The crazy Taoist priest suddenly became delusional and muttered to himself outside the car window: "The sooner you die, the sooner you will be reborn. You are obsessed with appearances."