Chapter 931: Opera Path Has Gods in the Pear Garden Trade, River Bottom Green Mud Molds Ghost Body

"The old master hasn't sat down yet, but got up in a hurry. Is there any place where Liang didn't treat you well?"

Clay Figure Zhang just lifted his trouser legs, and a handsome, elegant, and peaceful man turned from the backstage. His eyebrows were beautifully trimmed. Wu Ponu stared at him several times before recognizing him: "You, you are that famous Dan actor from the south, the Living Guanyin Liang Sulan?"

"Don't dare, don't dare... Guanyin Niangniang is a compassionate god and Buddha. Allowing me to play her is already a great grace."

"I just got the audience's support and played Guanyin a few times at the temple fair. I don't dare to take this title."

Liang Sulan's tone was gentle, and he said to Clay Figure Zhang: "The skill of kneading clay figures in your sleeves, old master, is a unique skill in Zhigu. Liang failed to get the old master's favor, I think it's because my luck is thin."

Clay Figure Zhang cupped his hands, full of etiquette, and said: "Liang Boss, you are joking! Your 'Guanyin Attains the Dao' has already achieved its spirit. It is rumored that craftsmen in Sichuan adopt your image when shaping gods and Buddhas, and shaping Guanyin."

"I knead the form and shape the spirit, and there is a living Guanyin here, how could I miss it!"

"It's just a pity that I am a craftsman, and also a businessman. But business is at the door, so I can't refuse. If you want to see the opera Liang Boss is eating, you have to wait until the day after tomorrow!"

Liang Sulan smiled and said: "That's good! I won't disturb the old master's business! Speaking of which, the path of our Pear Garden trade is somewhat similar to the old master's. We who sing opera have to disguise ourselves as a person, and the mud ball in the old master's sleeves also has to be kneaded into a person. In this person, there is spirit. It's a shame, the predecessor Yu Sansheng in our Pear Garden trade once sang opera in this Daguan Tower."

"But he got the opera costume statue shaped by the old master, and the name of Clay Figure Zhang spread throughout the world."

"Old Master Yu is a famous actor I deeply admire. Before the Huiban entered the capital, he integrated the essence of Han-tune Pihuang and Hui-tune Pihuang, and the spirit of the north and south Kunqu and Bangzi, which laid the foundation for opening the path of Peking Opera."

"Opera has opera gods!"

"Old Master Yu is a god of opera."

"I am entering the capital this time, also wanting to bring the essence of Sichuan opera to the capital, push the path of opera one step further, and lay a small foundation."

"Unfortunately, I failed to see Old Master Yu's 'Dingjun Mountain' in the past, but I was lucky enough to see the opera costume 'Dingjun Mountain' shaped by the old master when I was young. That appearance and spirit are all in it, which is my lifelong treasure. If I missed the old master's clay sculpture, I would rather wait another three days."

Clay Figure Zhang admired: "Liang Boss has a good eye. This way of clay figures is a path I opened myself."

"The step of entering the spirit in the past was led by Yu Sansheng, which laid the foundation for the clay figure path. Looking at Liang Boss's words and deeds, living from the opera to the outside of the opera, he has already entered the spirit. This is the achievement of the third step of the opera path."

"Liang Boss has such attainments, but still not satisfied with being a role, now entering the capital to preach, wanting to push the opera path one step further, I am very impressed."

"I am waiting to shape Guanyin for Liang Boss..."

The two Jianghu figures nodded to each other, with three parts of politeness and seven parts of Jianghu friendship, and bid farewell.

Walking in the alleys of Zhigu, Clay Figure Zhang led Wu Ponu through the alleys.

And Wu Ponu was recalling the words in Daguan Tower. He never expected that the gentle and delicate Liang Boss was actually a person of the third step of the path, and from the Pill Realm, it was only one step away.

"There are hidden dragons and crouching tigers in this Dagu Port. I didn't expect that a passing opera singer was also a living Bodhisattva."

Clay Figure Zhang looked back at him and shook his head with a smile: "Your Zombie White Bone Palm has already been practiced into your bones, even if I shape a statue for you, it will mostly be a zombie white bone!"

"But if I shape a statue for Liang Boss, it will definitely be a Bodhisattva!"

"Oh?" Wu Ponu was surprised: "It seems that my kung fu hasn't been practiced into my bones, so I can't shape a White Bone Bodhisattva."

"The spirit in his eyes is the Guanyin who is truly compassionate, while the spirit in your bones is just a martial artist who fights and kills. My clay sculpture emphasizes form and spirit. Your realm and understanding haven't reached it."

"Then did he reach it?" Wu Ponu was a little unconvinced.

Clay Figure Zhang looked at him and said lightly: "He disguises himself as a Guanyin statue, but he really has a Bodhisattva heart. It's just that he is trapped by his identity, inevitably carrying some resentment, and hasn't been completely transparent. Even so, he is a master who opened a path himself! On the path, he is only one point behind me."

Wu Ponu was not angry, but curiously asked: "If you shape a statue for my Sect Master, what kind of appearance can you knead?"

Clay Figure Zhang stopped suddenly, looked at him deeply, and then raised his legs and walked toward the side door of the Tianhou Palace, saying halfway: "Your Sect Master once came to the Tianhou Palace and met Cui the Daoist. I am familiar with the old Daoist, he deeply fears your Sect Master, but refuses to invite me to knead a clay figure. Do you know why?"

Wu Ponu never expected that there was such an inside story.

Stopped and asked: "Why?"

"Because if I knead that clay figure, I will die!"

Clay Figure Zhang said seriously: "Your Sect Master is a person who has surpassed me a hundred times in the clay figure path of creating people. The spirit of such a person enters the clay figure, and that clay figure will not be controlled by me. Kneading a clay figure must be close, facing your Sect Master at such a close distance, I will surely die!"

"Alright!" Clay Figure Zhang pushed open a small door on the side of the Tianhou Palace: "We are here!"

They walked in a very deep, very small alley. From the outside, it looked like a dead end.

Only at the end, a small door on the side of the Tianhou Palace appeared, and the wooden door covering it was very old. Below the steps were weeds, and it seemed that no one had walked this road for a long time.

Clay Figure Zhang opened the door lock and led Wu Ponu into the Tianhou Palace. This small road led to the Qisheng Hall behind the Scripture Pavilion.

Clay Figure Zhang walked into the side hall, which was full of clay figure embryos, all just having a human shape, without painting or drawing.

An old Daoist priest had a scripture book covering his face, lying on a chair taking a nap.

Mud-Doll Zhang stood respectfully in front of the old Daoist priest, bowed three times, and then stepped into the back of the hall.

But he heard the old Daoist priest suddenly speak: "What are you coming back for?"

"Since you kneaded Yu Sansheng and became famous, you borrowed the path of drama and found the way for the mud dolls of the Tianhou Palace, opening a lineage yourself, and have already become a grandmaster! The path of cultivation does not allow for complexity; you don't watch the sentient beings day and night, sculpting your mud dolls, what are you coming back for? To clutter the path is to end up with no place to be buried!"

Wu Ponu turned his head and saw the old Daoist priest, who had still been napping, opening a pair of clear, bright eyes, piercing through his eyes as if he could see through the human heart.

Mud-Doll Zhang performed a respectful Daoist salute and said: "Greetings, senior brother! The Profound Truth Sect leader wants a pair of mud dolls! He specifically named the mud dolls of the Tianhou Palace; junior brother is a businessman, so I came to take some soil, and I ask senior brother to make it convenient."

The senior brother pondered for a moment and said: "Profound Truth Sect leader! Is it that one who obtained the Black Tai Sui?"

"It is indeed this person!"

The senior brother sighed: "Do you know that by agreeing to this matter, you are considered to be involved in it! At that time, when one is in the Jianghu, one cannot help oneself. Moreover, that Profound Truth Sect leader can obtain the Black Tai Sui; his path of creation must be extremely terrifying. Whether his path is auspicious or ominous, it is hard to say."

"In the past, you left the Tianhou Palace. You took the secret ritual of kneading mud dolls to pray for children for the believers, which originally imitated the story of the Heavenly Empress creating humans in the past, and sublimated it into a Great Dao outside of the Mother Tripod. The senior brothers in the palace drew a line with you on the surface, but in their hearts, they were gratified."

"The mud dolls of our Tianhou Palace knead humans, fate, and living things, so by borrowing the divine qi in the mud dolls to give birth to a child, one must call the one in front the eldest brother."

"And you? You entered the Dao with mud dolls, obtained the method of entering the spirit from Yu Sansheng's drama path, used the spirit to enter the mud doll, sculpted others, old bodies, sculpted statues for living people, and kneaded humans into gods."

"Therefore, the Tianhou Palace kneads mud dolls, while you knead the divine embryos of humans!"

"You and us are not on the same path!"

The senior brother took a key from his bosom and walked tremblingly to a goddess statue that was kneading mud dolls, which was worshipped in the side hall filled with mud dolls.

That statue was also made of mud, and because the era was too long ago, its face was peeling and blurred.

The senior brother took out an iron box from under the statue's feet, opened the golden lock on it with the key, and then handed the box to Mud-Doll Zhang.

"To knead mud dolls, one must use the most delicate river mud from the bottom of the Sanchahe; this box of river mud was dug out by me from the bottom of the Sanchahe when the Customs Bridge was rebuilt earlier."

Mud-Doll Zhang stroked the dry mud material and whispered: "The mud color is blue-black, the mud quality is delicate, the texture is like mutton-fat jade, and where it sticks to the hand, it is like flesh and blood."

"Yan Shixiong brother, this is the ghost blue mud from the bottom of the Sanchahe!"

"Yes!"

The senior brother looked dim-sighted and muttered: "Children of ordinary families don't have such hard fates, so they can't use this river mud to sculpt dolls. Sigh! A basket of river mud at that time, I kneaded three dolls. One for the Cui kid who judges the list of disasters, another one broke its cock and became a woman in the Taishan Mother Temple, and another one is you..."

"Now the situation is turbulent, the national fortune is uneasy, and the dolls sculpted from this blue mud from the bottom of the river will be contaminated with ominousness as soon as they land, and they will surely become monsters that bring disaster to the country!"

"I don't dare to use it anymore! This time, you sculpt a body for him; if you want to use it, use it on him. I see his fate is not enough, but his background is solid. As the saying goes, a hard fate is not as good as a hard backing; he is a person who can carry it!"

Wu Ponu dared not speak out of anger.

"Mud dolls carry good fortune..."

After the senior brother handed that box of river mud to Mud-Doll Zhang, it was as if he had put down some burden; he returned to the chair and said gloomily: "That is the human created by the Heavenly Empress! The Heavenly Empress is on the moon, using soil and water to combine, turning into a flesh-and-blood mother womb, and then kneading and kneading in the tripod! Kneaded into a human shape! As long as we humans don't have such big thoughts, imitating the Heavenly Empress to knead a few mud dolls, the Heavenly Empress will also bestow blessings."

"Blow a breath into it, and it turns into a little mud doll that can bring good fortune to people and bring children."

"But if you imitate the appearance of the human created by the Heavenly Empress and knead a real person, that is one soul and two bodies; the ordinary mud doll cannot compare to the body kneaded by the Heavenly Empress, so naturally, nothing will happen."

"But if you knead a mud doll, and the skill of taking pictures is too good, and you obtain the spirit! Once a person gets sick, the soul of the original flesh is unstable, and that mud doll or picture will take your soul and absorb your essence; gradually, your flesh will become a mud doll, and the mud doll will become you!"

"Is the you that the mud doll turned into still the real you?"

"Therefore, those who knead mud dolls in the Tianhou Palace have never walked this path."

"Zhang Mingshan! This path has finally been walked through by you!"

"Because you are not kneading humans, you are kneading gods! Everyone is a god; you kneaded their divine spirit out and sculpted a god for everyone, so naturally, you are not afraid of the mud doll taking a human life! And you are not afraid of kneading a few more, because even if there are a hundred or a thousand mud dolls, there is only one god!"

"Just like so many god statues in temples under heaven, but the god worshipped is one..."

"But Zhang Mingshan!"

"The Heavenly Empress has such great ability, but she only kneaded humans. You, however, kneaded gods! If you don't walk this path to the end, the outcome will surely be bad." The senior brother said gloomily: "What I can help you with, that's all there is!"

Mud-Doll Zhang respectfully kowtowed three times to the senior brother, took Wu Ponu out of the side hall, and came to the main hall of Qisheng.

"Go out!"

Mud-Doll Zhang said to Wu Ponu: "I am going to knead the mud doll! You go out and wait; when I have finished kneading, I will call you!"

Wu Ponu looked at him deeply, nodded and said okay, turned and left, watching the main hall door close tightly.

"The Mother creates humans, ghosts and gods cry!"

Wu Ponu suddenly muttered: "Gods are worshipped by humans; which is more powerful, creating humans or creating gods, it's hard to say!"

The Tai Sui flesh squirmed in his abdomen, and an invisible qi machine between heaven and earth gathered.

The magnificent Tianhou Palace turned into small dust in the universe, but this small dust connected the most magnificent power in the universe.

In the Luo Temple, Qian Chen looked up toward the direction of the Tianhou Palace, his expression calm.

"Wa Huang's creation! Sister Tripod! What kind of taboo Dao fruit do you want to refine in this universe? The Dao fruit of creation encompasses all things, so why would it need any branch Dao fruit to fill it? If we talk about it, all Dao fruits under heaven are branches of creation."

"Tai Shang's Yin-Yang differentiation is Xi and Wa, but Wa Huang is not Tai Shang; what secret is hidden in this?"

"Wa Huang became independent from Tai Shang's past; is it really just because Tai Shang differentiated Yin and Yang and does not represent the whole Tai Shang?"

"But if that's the case, then Tai Shang is not Wa Huang, but Wa Huang should be Tai Shang. But now, they have become two independent entities... Can repeating Wa Huang's path really find the essence of life and self?"

"Must be careful of the mirror and Sister Tripod; currently, it seems the heart to turn me into a woman is not dead!"

"But if Wa Huang becoming independent from Tai Shang is really the Great Law of turning into a woman, and they use this to tempt me, how should I choose? Could it be that Wa Huang used this point back then to let Tai Shang cut off his dark history of women's clothing, so that he could become independent?"

"Pah... Tai Shang wouldn't care about these things!"

Qian Chen muttered: "In terms of face, no one is thicker than Tai Shang. That I am still alive in this world is proof. Otherwise, with the dark history of Tai Shang that I have mastered, he should have attacked me long ago..."