Chapter 1464

Character Side Story: Yunye Disciple · Li Jingming

Side story is here!

This part of the side story is an "extra update" advanced during the Peak Ranking event. The reason it's being released at the end of the year is because Tomato has a Spring Festival update event where you can get red envelopes. With the idea of not missing out on a good thing, I dragged it until now, hiahia~

Thanks again to everyone for your support during the ranking period, and I wish you all a Happy New Year a day early!

In the mountains, Yunye Temple.

The afterglow dyes the trees in autumn, the setting sun weaves yellow in the wild.

Sparse shadows fall on the cutting board, as if competing with the strokes of the pen tip for the paper.

In front are curling incense fumes, behind the courtyard is a murmuring stream; in such good scenery, even the heart for copying scriptures settles down.

A thin, small figure sits at the desk, meticulously copying the deeds of the ancestors in the temple, reciting softly as he writes.

Calling them "deeds" is actually a bit of an exaggeration; at best, these are just diaries.

Since little Li Jingming could remember, besides eating, meditating, and sleeping, he was copying these diaries. He didn't know what the meaning of this was, but he couldn't deny that this was one of the few pleasures he had in the temple.

"March 22nd, sunny, ice and snow beginning to melt, suitable for fishing. I took the rod and went. On the way, I met a pilgrim with a rich catch, very jealous of it. I stopped to preach to him, discussing 'The great virtue of heaven and earth is life', hoping the pilgrim would fish with virtue and release the catch. The pilgrim agreed, panicked and went down the mountain, bowing every three steps. Seeing him walk far away, I picked up his catch and returned. That night I cooked the fresh fish, delicious, a great good deed today."

"March 26th, rainy, suitable for closing the temple. Today the temple was noisy. I woke up to see a pilgrim arguing with my master, saying 'I saw fish bones in the back kitchen, why not fish with virtue and release them?' I hurried forward and argued, 'A petty person did it, dirtying the reputation of Yunye.' Those who heard were all angry and swore to catch him. After they left, my master and I were sweating profusely. All the kitchen leftovers were burned afterward, leaving no trace."

"April 4th, very sunny, craving the deliciousness of fish, suitable for fishing..."

At first, when he was young, Li Jingming was still ignorant of the content. As he grew up, he felt that the ancestors told too many lies.

He felt this was different from what his master taught, so he asked his master why the ancestors were full of lies. His master smiled and told him this was called being frank, unrestrained, free, and unconstrained, but warned him to only understand the meaning and not learn the form.

Little Li Jingming didn't understand and asked why.

He still remembers the complex expression on his master's face that day:

"I also yearn for the life of the ancestors, but yearning is one thing; if you learn from them now... you will either be beaten by the villagers down the mountain or thrown into a cell to eat prison food.

Sigh, times have changed. In short, don't learn, don't learn."

"Master, how do you know?"

"Ahem, it's getting dark, go cook."

"Oh, okay."

Days passed, Li Jingming grew up, and he had copied the scriptures in the temple I don't know how many times. He already knew the deeds of the ancestors by heart.

It's just that he had many doubts when copying scriptures, two of which were the most confusing.

First, although there were many interesting things in the scriptures, he hadn't found many of the mentioned places around the mountains. He asked his master about this, and his master said that the world changes and the mountains change, and many places have different names, so they couldn't be found.

However, the scriptures passed down from generation to generation would never be wrong. At least no Yunye disciple dared to smear the past of the ancestors, and there was no need to smear this rare pleasure.

Second, the records of Yunye Temple were not completely continuous. The biggest break was between the generation of the grandmaster and the master, with almost 8 or 9 years missing in the middle. Li Jingming asked his master again, and his master said that when the master was young, he accidentally ignited the scripture room, burned some scriptures, and didn't dare to speak out after putting out the fire, so he hid it from the grandmaster.

But when he asked why the master didn't record the big fire of that year, his master's expression was strange, and he ignored him.

Li Jingming was extremely curious. He searched around the scripture room and couldn't find any traces of smoke or fire even after prying off the wall skin. So one day, taking advantage of a shopping trip, he went down the mountain to inquire. It was only then that he learned from the old people in the village about the part of the past that was not recorded in the scriptures.

Wars broke out everywhere back then, and the Daoist priests on the mountain went to fight with guns and never came back. The older generation of villagers once thought that Yunye Temple had broken its lineage, until someone went up the mountain decades ago, and everyone realized belatedly that it seemed to be the disciples of that person who had returned. This person was Li Jingming's master.

After that person stayed in Yunye Temple for a few days, he began to clean the main hall. Soon, Yunye Temple reopened, and everyone came to congratulate him. The incense was renewed and has been passed down to this day.

The old people spoke vividly, sighing at how prosperous the incense of Yunye Temple was. So many people died in the war that year, yet someone was able to crawl back from the sea of blood and corpses to inherit this temple. The people down the mountain all thought it was the gods in the temple showing their spirits to protect them, so the incense became even more prosperous.

Only Li Jingming felt that this statement couldn't hold water at all.

If the master was really a disciple accepted by the grandmaster outside, why wouldn't he be willing to complete the memories of him and the grandmaster outside, leaving the history of Yunye Temple without omissions?

That day, Li Jingming couldn't figure it out. After returning to the temple, his face was full of confusion. Seeing him like this, his master sighed and finally told him the secret.

He still remembers the scenes of that day. His master stood in front of the hall, moonlight and incense smoke intertwined, casting broken shadows in the hall.

"Actually, your grandmaster was not your master's master."

Just one sentence left Li Jingming stunned on the spot.

"Your grandmaster passed away on the battlefield and did not leave any inheritance. Your master was just a passing refugee who fled here to beg for food and avoid disaster. Seeing that Yunye Temple could shelter him from the wind and rain, he stayed.

He could read, so naturally, he could understand what was recorded in the scriptures. After reading many scriptures, he fell in love with this place, so he gave up the idea of going south and stayed, 'inheriting' the mantle of Yunye Temple.

Speaking of which, sigh, you and I are not the direct descendants of Yunye, but just outsiders who occupied the magpie's nest."

"!!!"

Li Jingming was dumbfounded. He never imagined that the identity of a Yunye disciple he had always been proud of was actually a broken inheritance picked up from someone else. His master was also "fake", and his master's master was also "fake". Only the grandmaster was real, but he had no relationship with him at all.

At that moment, he felt lost about everything he had recorded.

His master knew this feeling well. When his master was young, he also asked his master with such curiosity, but when he really learned the truth, he felt it was better not to know.

"This is 'Memory', tracing back to the past, with joy and sorrow from the heart.

History never changes; what changes is the perspective of later generations looking at history.

Ignorant in childhood, I had no choice, but after growing up, I can choose how to view this past.

Although Yunye is a small temple, it carries the memories of countless ancestors. Your master read the scriptures and yearned for them, so he returned here to pick up the incense again.

The Dao seeks nature; who can say this is not a master-disciple relationship separated by several years?

So don't belittle yourself. You and I are both Yunye disciples, at least we can be considered a new branch. As for whether you consider yourself the main branch, it depends on how you view the relationship between your master and the grandmaster.

When fate arrives, we are master and disciple; when fate is shallow, we are fellow practitioners.

Memory is natural, and Daoist practice is also natural."

That night, Li Jingming realized.

The "form" of the past was left by predecessors, but the "meaning" of the past is interpreted by later generations. History is not wrong, and memory is not wrong. As for whether the interpreter is wrong, it depends on whether he can be worthy of his own heart.