Chapter 142

"Supporting the Dragon"

Chen Yaozu was somewhat speechless. What era was this?

Still "supporting the dragon"? The Great Qing was long gone! In the whole world, where was there still an Emperor? Although Europe had forty-four countries, and twelve countries still had kings, at least half of them no longer held power.

Asia, there were hardly any kings left.

Moreover, whether they were European or Asian, which one of these dozen or so kings dared to claim he was a true dragon?

Still "supporting the dragon"...

But since it had been given to him, he would just accept it!

However, upon accepting it and understanding the information, he suddenly discovered something was wrong.

The Daoist Gate's Qi-Observing Dragon-Supporting Court was originally not some forbidden art.

Since ancient times, when the world was in great chaos, there would be people from the Daoist Gate who came down the mountain to either hang up a gourd and save the world, or set right what was overturned, doing their utmost to protect the local area.

All because accumulating merit in chaotic times was somewhat easier than in peaceful times, making cultivation easier.

But the greatest merit lay in selecting, among the myriad flood dragons in the world, one true dragon capable of ascending the great position, assisting it, pacifying this chaos, and giving the common people a chance to breathe — that was an immense merit.

If this momentum succeeded, that towering merit and Qi Luck could help someone ascend the immortal path.

In the Former Song, during Emperor Shenzong's time, Dragon Tiger Mountain had a young Ancestral Master who deviated from the classics and rebelled against orthodoxy.

He once said: "Tang Emperor Li Shimin once received a remonstrance: The ruler is the boat, the people are the water; water can carry the boat, and can also overturn the boat.

And the Daoist Gate observes Qi Luck: mountains are dragons, water is dragons. But if one says the Emperor is also a true dragon, how absurd! Peaks gather, continuous and unbroken, rising and falling, leaping and soaring, converging at one end as the head; the mountains and rivers' momentum converges again into a single point at the dragon's mouth — this is the precious pearl beneath the mountain dragon's jaw.

The source of the Yangtze River, I have been there; it is merely a spring, the size of a palm. How could it gather into a flood dragon's momentum, rushing east to the sea with towering waves?

It is merely accumulating sand into a pagoda, a hundred rivers returning to the flow, the dragon heads converging at the Yangtze's mouth! This is the way of the water dragon! What about the human king, the true dragon?

This poor Daoist secretly believes: the people are like water — these words are supremely apt!

The people are like water; a hundred rivers return and converge into the Yangtze's great river flood dragon momentum, waves towering to the sky.

If the Emperor is that precious pearl in the dragon head's mouth, then the myriad common people under heaven are the scales and flesh on the dragon's body.

The people are like water, and also like dragons.

Therefore, my Dragon-Supporting Art and the Daoist Gate's Dragon-Supporting Court appear not far apart, but in reality they are diametrically opposed.

The Daoist Gate's dragon is the human king, the Son of Heaven.

My dragon is the common people's hearts."

He was denounced by the Celestial Master of the time as deviating from the classics and rebelling against orthodoxy, then expelled from Dragon Tiger Mountain; he moved to Huashan, and not long after entered the court as an official. He once debated the Dharma with Wang Anshi, and even reached the position of Chancellor, only wishing to govern the world with his own method.

But the people's hearts are hard to govern, hard to fathom.

Therefore, although that Ancestral Master's Go To conduct was deep, he never achieved ascension.

So, this Dragon-Supporting Art was listed as a Dragon Tiger Mountain forbidden art. Although it could not be counted as some crooked Evil Cultivation, in Dragon Tiger Mountain's records it was also not a good path.

People's hearts have power; the more the disaster victims recognize and love you, the more Qi Luck can condense from within as a blessing, increasing your own cultivation foundation.

The method of obtaining Qi Luck from the people's hearts to cultivate... Chen Yaozu clicked his tongue; however he looked at it, he felt it was somewhat Evil. Because the people's hearts can be manipulated! At the same time, they can also backlash.

However, the prompt Chen Yaozu received was that he was not afraid of backlash, because of that Jade Talisman in his Sea of Consciousness.

Before obtaining this forbidden art, he first obtained the Jade Talisman disguised as a black Wooden Tablet. This was his fortune, and also the fortune of those common people who would soon arrive in his territory.

Because this Jade Talisman in his brain had a great origin.

The ancestral treasure refined by generations of Dragon Tiger Mountain Daoist Gate Celestial Masters; legend says this is the Heavenly Heart, also called the Heavenly Edicts in the Daoist Gate.

In ancient times, Daoist Gate people often said "embody the Heavenly Heart," meaning one must comply with the Heavenly Edicts and laws above, the original laws of the Great Go To.

It is said this Jade Talisman was originally just a jade slip; though small, it was the Heavenly God Roster bestowed by the Supreme Old Lord of Heaven upon Zhang Daoling. The talismanic characters on it were all the names of Heavenly Gods.

Using the names of Heavenly Gods to write talismanic characters and command the myriad gods, to campaign against the world's evil spirits — none dared disobey.

This thing has another name: the Orthodox Unity Alliance Authority Talisman Register.

But from some unknown time, the talismanic characters on this jade slip disappeared, leaving only this blank jade slip.

The Heavenly God names on the jade slip — that is, those talismanic characters — disappeared, but the Heavenly Edicts that the various gods and immortals needed to abide by on that jade slip did not all disappear.

Thus gradually, the Heavenly Edicts that did not disappear turned this jade slip into a Talisman, becoming its current appearance.

And the generations of Ancestral Masters, after losing the Heavenly God names, seemed to have gradually severed the path to ascension; they slowly had ideas, also wanting to leave something behind for their descendants.

Thus, this Talisman stored the benefits left behind by generations of Ancestral Masters.

And that Ancestral Master from the Former Song, Emperor Shenzong's period, who created the Dragon-Supporting Forbidden Art — it was also within. When encountering a descendant whose conditions matched, it would be released to let him try whether he could learn it.

Originally, all this information was impossible for him to know in such detail.

But perhaps a certain Predecessor, when putting the Dragon-Supporting Forbidden Art inside, also worried about ruining such a direct-line descendant who could hold office and had the Jade Talisman in hand.

That's right!

In the Sea of Consciousness, within that Talisman's cognition, although Chen Yaozu didn't have many people under him, he already counted as a pastoral official.

After all, he had territory, a Yamen, and people — if he wasn't an official, what was he? Since he was an official, then by the Heavenly Heart he would admonish his behavior, pastor the people with goodness, and see if he could cultivate an immortal using the people's hearts, Official Qi, plus fortune!

That is to say, as long as Chen Yaozu's actions conformed to the Heavenly Edicts' rules, his cultivation base could advance bravely and vigorously.

And precisely because he conformed to the Heavenly Edicts' rules, the backlash brought by the people's hearts turning toward or away would not fall upon himself.

These were all unimportant.

The important thing was that in the Dragon-Supporting Forbidden Art, besides the method of refining the people's hearts' Qi Luck, there was also a spell usable against enemies. The Yanjing Fa! While researching the Yanjing Fa's information, a scene appeared in his brain.

The Great Ming. An old farmer selling pears by the roadside; this cart full of pears was both large and sweet. The old farmer, seeing he sold them for a good price, was delighted in his heart, and decided to buy a string of candied haws on a stick for his obedient grandson on the way back.

At this time an old Daoist came. The old Daoist seemed to have traveled far, and was thirsty. Seeing those pears large and plump, he stepped forward to beg: "Old Layman, this poor Daoist has come a long way and is very thirsty; I want to beg two pears from you to eat, may I?"

The old farmer was somewhat unwilling. After all, this cart of pears was his family's livelihood; he himself was reluctant to eat them!

But after thinking it over, he still picked a slightly smaller one and handed it to the old Daoist. The old Daoist took the pear, laughed "hehe," and didn't even say thanks.

He ate the pear in a few bites, leaving only the core.

Then he said loudly: "Those coming from the south, those going to the north, all you benevolent believers, today the weather is scorching, this old Daoist sees you are all thirsty and weary, and wants to treat everyone to pears."

An old farmer selling pears is not strange, but an old Daoist loudly clamoring to treat the people present to pears — that is a spectacle.

So a group of people surrounded him.

This work was organized and uploaded~~

One saw the Daoist dig a small pit right in the street, bury the pear core in the soil, then go to the shop next door to borrow some water and pour it over.

Then, right before everyone's eyes on the main street, this freshly planted pear core rapidly sprouted, grew, blossomed, and bore fruit.

When it blossomed, someone plucked a flower and sniffed it; sure enough, it was fragrant.

In the blink of an eye the pear tree grew taller than the houses lining the street, shading the entire street, its branches laden with pears.

A few pears grew low enough that the onlookers could reach out and pluck them.

Everyone marveled endlessly, yet no one dared reach out and pick, after all the one who grew this pear tree was the Daoist old immortal before their eyes.

"Come come come, these are the pears I'm treating everyone to, one per person, first come first served!

This tree is too tall, who will help me find a knife, I'll chop this tree down so everyone can pick pears to eat!"

The shop's partner was also joining the fun; hearing this he shouted: "Old immortal wait, I'll go get you a hatchet right now!"

In a moment he brought out a splitting hatchet from the shop and handed it to the old Daoist; the old Daoist didn't say another word and in three chops felled this freshly grown pear tree.

After the pear tree fell, the crowd swarmed forward and stripped the pears clean; eating them they found them sweet and juicy — sure enough, pears grown by the old immortal.

Only after everyone finished eating the pears did they discover the old Daoist was gone, and gone with him was that pear tree.

Suddenly a wail rang out by the roadside, incomparably bleak; it turned out to be that pear-selling old farmer, guarding his one-wheeled cart whose handles had been chopped off, weeping miserably, only because the cart full of pears was now completely gone.

At this time people realized that the old Daoist had just used a Yanjing Fa; the pears everyone ate were actually the old Han's pears! So someone said this was trouble brought on by the old Han's stinginess.

But others said, the old Han's own pears, being able to let that old Daoist eat them was already good enough; who knew the old Daoist would actually forget kindness and betray righteousness, using a Yanjing Fa to lure others into eating his whole cart of pears.

This was the old farmer's only harvest for the whole year.

The livelihood of his entire family depended on it.

Now, just because of a lawless old Daoist, everything is gone!

Among the onlookers, some took the chance to slip away, some shamefacedly stepped forward and took out money to buy the pears.】

Chen Yaozu wasn't here to watch a story; he was watching that Yanjing Fa.

Hiss—

To tell the truth, Chen Yaozu felt he was not a qualified Daoist cultivator.

He is still in Breath Regulation right now, the magical power he has cultivated is not much, let alone magical arts; a bit shameful.

But from today on, he can completely straighten his chest and say to everyone: at any rate I now know one Yanjing Fa.

Consciousness transmission of skills has one benefit: the mind has learned it!

But one actually still has to practice, because the hands haven't learned!

Su Yichen discussed with Wenzhou Fish how to properly handle the six old Mo according to procedure, but suddenly froze: "Ghost Wall?"

Wenzhou Fish also froze, but quickly reacted:

"Commandant Hu, let's speak nicely, we're all our own people……"

Receiving no response, Wenzhou Fish grew anxious: "Nainai, where did this little Fish offend you, be magnanimous and spare me!"

Though the words were spoken, the situation still did not change.

Wenzhou Fish and Su Yichen could only watch helplessly as the spot they stood on seemed to sink into the ground, sinking continuously.

The ground had turned into quicksand at some unknown time; it rose past their chests, mouths, noses, ears, eyes……

They clawed frantically, trying to pull themselves out of the quicksand, but to no avail; in the end they could only be submerged up to their heads, and then began to experience that suffocating feeling.

"Cough cough…… cough cough cough……"

When all illusions vanished, Wenzhou Fish and Su Yichen finally recovered from the suffocation, coughing desperately at the sand that did not exist entering their mouths and noses.

……

Jenny Flopes received the motorcade at the intersection, her mood somewhat heavy, because this was fundamentally not 200-some people or 200 families.

The believers who came numbered a full 500 vehicles; even at one family per vehicle, there were 500-some families among those who came.

Twice as many people! Archbishop…… can you afford to support them? Looking at the motorcade before her, she took out her phone and dialed Chen Yaozu's number.

【I've spent most of the evening on these 10,000 characters, only got 5,000-some done, still short 4,600; same old rule, won't sleep until it's finished.

Even if I pull an all-nighter, I won't sleep!】

(Chapter End)