Chapter 192: The Rite of Bestowing the Lu

Time flew swiftly as Pan Yun studied; the September Lu Ceremony examination officially began, and the academy granted all students leave, as the masters had to descend the mountain to supervise the exams.

With Miao Zhen and Miao He helping her, Pan Yun found a trick for washing clothes—using Yuan force to wash them was quick, and once done, she gave herself a holiday, joining her classmates as they descended the mountain to join the festivities.

Of course, they could not enter the Master of Heaven's Mansion, so they wandered the streets or leapt onto nearby rooftops, tiptoeing to peer inside.

Unfortunately, some unknown array had been set within the Master of Heaven's Mansion; aside from occasional flashes of seven-colored magical hues, they could see nothing.

The Lu Ceremony examination lasted three days, and results were announced the same day each exam ended.

Although the Master of Heaven's Mansion publicly claimed it would not control the number of Lu recipients—as long as one's cultivation and moral character met the standard, they would be granted Lu.

But Pan Yun believed this was merely an excuse the Master of Heaven's Mansion gave to the outside world; if they didn't control the number of Lu recipients, given the number of people she'd seen capable of Dao cultivation, the world would be flooded with Daoist Priests.

Yet even though these Daoist Priests received Lu and gained recognition from within the sect, without an official license, they were not recognized by the imperial court and still had to pay taxes and perform corvée labor.

Chen Ziwu had good fortune—he passed this examination.

Moreover, he not only held the status of Daoist Priest at the Master of Heaven's Mansion but was also exempt from imperial corvée, because, "I'm a native of Fengyang; the Taizu Emperor issued a special decree granting us Fengyang natives exemption from labor service."

Pan Yun: "Did the wealthy Jiangnan families relocated to Fengyang suffer? Are they all ruined now?"

Chen Ziwu's proud, self-satisfied expression instantly turned crimson with anger. "What are you talking about? They're all doing fine."

Yet his expression betrayed unmistakable guilt.

Pan Yun didn't care. She nodded. "Good, then."

Chen Ziwu fell silent for a long time; his pride and guilt vanished. He spoke softly: "Life for the native people of Fengyang is hard too. Though exempt from labor service, for some reason, everyone's life grows harder each year. In recent years, Fengyang has suffered repeated floods, and every household has emptied its grain stores."

Pan Yun: "Didn't the imperial court send relief grain?"

"A drop in the ocean," Chen Ziwu said. "Only the Taizu Emperor still remembered old ties. Now, it's the fourth generation. He's never even visited Fengyang—how could he have any feeling for it?"

Pan Yun nodded thoughtfully, murmuring: "So how much feeling does the current Emperor have for other, more distant branches of the imperial clan?"

Chen Ziwu's eyes widened. "Y-you—you what?"

Pan Yun glanced at him. "What's so surprising? You don't understand why Fengyang's people, though exempt from labor service, still grow poorer? Because their taxes, levies, and hidden expenses have increased!"

"Where did that money go? At least a third flowed into the imperial family," Pan Yun patted his shoulder. "Relief grain is a drop in the ocean because the state treasury is empty. Why is the treasury empty? Because there are too many parasites—overt ones, and covert ones."

"The vast imperial clan is the overt parasite. Aren't you a cultivator? How can you not have realized this?"

Pan Yun looked at Chen Ziwu, stunned into silence, shook her head, and walked away.

Chen Ziwu came to his senses only after a long while and hurried after her. "Why are you telling me this?"

"What's the point?" Pan Yun waved her hand. "I just saw you were clueless, so I told you. It's just the truth I happened to say—do you think I have some agenda? What purpose could you possibly serve for me?"

Chen Ziwu stopped walking. He remained silent for a long while, because he was just a commoner—he truly could not serve any purpose for Pan Yun.

He watched Pan Yun's small figure walk farther away; her shadow stretched longer, grew larger, until it formed a mountain pressing down upon him.

He felt as if his entire twenty-odd years had been wasted—he saw the world less clearly than a little girl.

After the Lu Ceremony examination, those who passed remained to receive their Lu.

Those who failed mostly stayed to observe the ceremony and attend the Lu bestowal ritual.

Even if they couldn't receive it themselves, seeing others receive it was enough—after watching, they'd be more motivated to try again next year!

This time, the academy's students were also allowed to attend the ceremony.

Pan Yun naturally didn't miss this spectacle—and she intended to use the opportunity to sell off the talismans she'd accumulated during this period.

During this time, she asked her senior brothers and sisters who returned for the exam; they too faced difficulty finding employment after graduation.

Only a rare few among them, those who could live alone and support no one, could retreat into remote mountains to focus on cultivation. The rest had to support themselves, their families, and were burdened with many obligations.

Besides returning home to farm and occasionally cultivating, they took on various tasks: performing rituals, exorcising ghosts, eliminating demons, fortune-telling—anything to earn a little.

Supporting a family required money; purchasing cultivation resources required money.

Why do Daoist Priests always call themselves "poor Daoists"?

Because Daoist Priests who don't go astray are genuinely poor.

Whether performing rituals, exorcising ghosts, or eliminating demons, talismans are used—and even fortune-telling often requires talismans.

When someone comes to you for a fortune reading, they must have a desire—seeking safety, wealth, love, or offspring.

Whatever the desire, there is a corresponding talisman. And according to several senior brothers and sisters she'd fought fiercely with, these talismans are graded.

The same peace talisman: one drawn by Master Xuanmiao is worth twenty taels or more; one drawn by them is worth at most four or five taels, or as little as one or two hundred copper coins, depending on the client's wealth.

Indeed, Daoist Priests are flexible—they can price a talisman according to the client's wealth.

There have even been cases of giving them away for free.

There are expenses from customers, and then there are expenses for their own use.

The talismans they use themselves are high-quality ones, because talismans used by them are typically reserved for moments of life-or-death necessity.

For exorcising ghosts and eliminating demons, the most commonly used talismans are Lei Fu and Feisu Fu.

The former strikes them; the latter is for escape.

After learning this, Pan Yun drew mostly Lei Fu and Feisu Fu. She tested them—her talismans were no worse than Master Xuanmiao's.

And how many Daoist Priests came to observe the Lu bestowal ceremony?

Several thousand. If even a hundred of them bought talismans from her…

Pan Yun cackled.

!.

Miao Zhen and Miao He shuddered, staring at her in shock and fear. "Little Master, what evil scheme are you hatching now?"

Pan Yun forced the smile off her face. "What evil scheme? My schemes are all righteous."

Miao Zhen and Miao He looked unconvinced.

Pan Yun pulled out two talismans and handed them over. "After the Lu ceremony ends, you two test these two talismans for me—I'm going to sell them."

Miao Zhen and Miao He each took one, offering no objection, but asked: "Where will you test them? Selling talismans openly inside the Master of Heaven's Mansion—isn't that inappropriate?"

Pan Yun lowered her gaze, thought for a moment, then said: "Then sell them secretly."

The ordination ceremony requires praying to Heaven, formally informing the immortals of the upper realms: "So-and-so hereby renounces passion and nature, puts an end to faults and wrongs, cuts off the root of evil, gives rise to the Dao's work, passes from the mortal into the sage, from beginning to end, first through the precepts and registers, and only then ascends to the true." From this point on, they are considered enrolled in the Heavenly Registers and may hold a Daoist rank and divine office.

Originally, Pan Yun was also to be ordained before she could take up the post of temple warden.

Ordination also falls into three categories. The first, like this time—an examination, and ordination upon passing—is the method by which the vast majority of Daoist Priests receive ordination.

The second is like Zhang Liuzhen and his kin: through bloodline transmission, ordained eligibility is determined from birth.

The third is the rare case like Pan Yun's—recognized by the immortals, she too could be ordained directly and granted a divine office.

In fact, much earlier, the Celestial Masters' Mansion did not wield such great authority, and the ordination ceremony was only held for Daoist Priests of Long Hushan itself.

But later, when the imperial court had the Celestial Masters' Mansion take charge of all Daoist affairs, the ordination ceremony first expanded to cover the entire Zhengyi Dao, and then gradually extended to Daoist Priests of other schools as well.

Of course, even now, there are still plenty of people in private who do not acknowledge the Celestial Masters' Mansion, nor do they acknowledge the ordination rites.

Pan Yun felt that Wang Feiyin was one of them; otherwise, he would not have written a letter to the Celestial Masters' Mansion back then, and when the Mansion did not reply, he was not in the least anxious.

It was as though whether the Celestial Masters' Mansion acknowledged her or granted her ordination mattered not at all—in the end, she became the temple warden anyway.

If Zhang Zi Fang had not gone to Mount Sanqing on behalf of the Zhang clan and pressed her so aggressively, she would probably have spent the next several years quietly cultivating the Dao at Mount Sanqing, and would never have come to Long Hushan.

When the top beam is crooked, the lower beams go askew. Wang Feiyin regarded the ordination rites as ordinary, and Pan Yun regarded this ceremony with equal indifference.

Still, upon seeing Zhang Ziwang and the others solemnly performing the ritual in their grand five-dragons-supporting-the-Taiji dharma robes, her expression involuntarily grew solemn, and she tilted her head up to watch earnestly.

The clouds in the sky gradually shifted. In the gaze of the crowd, the drifting white clouds slowly faded, then turned colored, like an exceedingly pale ribbon stretching away above their heads.

This was an auspicious omen, indicating that Heaven had acknowledged these Daoist Priests.

Pan Yun could not help but feel stirred within, and murmured, "Truly moving…"

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He were equally thrilled, pressing their hands to their chests they said, "Once we've finished our training, we must be ordained too."

Pan Yun gave a slight nod.

Although being ordained by Long Hushan sounded as though it put them a notch below, what did she care—she had been granted a divine office by the immortals' acknowledgment, and that ribbon of cloud was really beautiful.

Pan Yun's Five Apertures Heart activated, and she could clearly see that when the ritual finally ended and the colored clouds faded, they were not dispersed by the wind, but transformed into stream after stream of invisible Qi that descended upon the ordained Daoist Priests sitting cross-legged below.

Every Daoist Priest was enveloped by a wisp of Qi; she saw them being swiftly absorbed, and not only did their cultivation rise slightly, but they also seemed to gain an additional layer of connection with Heaven and Earth, as though they had signed some kind of contract.

It was a touch shallower than when she had been ordained as temple warden, but it was indeed not to be ignored.

(End of chapter)