Simulation becomes reality, have I ever looked down upon the eternity?

Chapter 405: A Confucian figure with a Taoist heart but a Buddhist heart, the stone statue incites the world to rebel!
[Life goes on as usual, the grass and trees in the yard have sprouted new buds, and spring is coming. ]

[There were people visiting the courtyard every now and then, especially the courtesan in the west wing who came particularly frequently.]

[The threshold of your courtyard is almost broken, but no one asks for your poem. After all, the story that Su Yaya once bought a poem and a painting from you for four million taels of silver has spread all over Bianjing, so naturally all the women are afraid to buy it.]

【During this period, there was an interesting incident! 】

[Hu Yunniang and Yun Wan won the top ten places in the banquet, successfully left Yuyue Huaxuan, were no longer court prostitutes, and regained their status as good men. ]

[Yun Wan and Hu Yunniang used their savings over the years to open a restaurant on Changning Street where Xie's mansion was located. They were experts in welcoming and seeing off guests, and with their reputation as the most beautiful courtesans and the support of their former sisters and patrons, the restaurant's business was booming and customers kept coming in an endless stream.]

[Hu Yunniang and others have come to ask you to marry a restaurant owner.]

[You wrote the word "Taiping" and hung it on the plaque of the restaurant.]

[When the store opened, you also asked Wutong to send gifts, which was the most lively event on Changning Street recently.]

[After Wutong came back, he enthusiastically described the grand occasion of the restaurant, and when he saw the women from Yuehuaxuan, they were all moved to tears.]

[For these women who have fallen into exile, the identity of a beloved man like fallen leaves returning to their roots is enough to comfort them. ]

[Zhang Yuan went to the academy to study, and Feng Yaya worked as a hanger-on in the Taiping Restaurant after being redeemed, and they lived a stable life.]

[During this period, many students from the academy came to ask for advice on poetry and literature, but after being taught by the teacher, no more students came.]

[The Academy also had a lukewarm reaction to the banquet. ]

[Zhang Yunzhi was quite puzzled. The academy was not a place that followed conventions, but why the academy forbade students from interacting with Xie Guan was beyond her comprehension.]

[Another half month has passed in the blink of an eye. ]

[Xie Yuan used to come here every day, but he has not been seen in the past few days. He is very tired every day because of his in-depth martial arts training. After completing his training and taking a medicinal bath, he falls asleep.]

[Mrs. Zhuge invited the teacher from the academy to teach Xie Yuan the method of cultivating his soul. Half a month later, Xie Yuan also entered the first level of his soul, "sensing".]

【Xie Yuan is overjoyed, and has come to you to demonstrate his unique skill of "locating by sound" at the first level of his Yuan Shen.】

[He originally wanted to teach you this method of cultivating the primordial spirit, but was forbidden by the teacher of the academy.]

[“The Dharma is not to be passed on to others!” the gentleman said solemnly.]

【Xie Yuan was a little disappointed. He always felt that if he cultivated the "Martial Arts Spirit", the gap between him and you would widen.】

[This feeling made him restless, but he could do nothing about it.]

[After this, he rarely came to your courtyard to talk about martial arts and soul cultivation.]

[Gongsun Madam came here once in the past few days. She has left Zixiao Pavilion, but has no plans to stay in Bianjing. She will only stay here for two months and then leave.]

【Everyone has their own aspirations! 】

[As for the things that happened when you were first enlightened, it seems that everyone has forgotten about it. No one mentions it, and you don’t care.]

[The days passed by like water, and you continued to study and practice in the courtyard, leading a peaceful life.]

[You live a fulfilling life every day, just changing your nighttime training to sunrise. ]

[After just five days, your lost cultivation was completely restored. Because you refined the sun's essence, your soul was able to appear in broad daylight, unafraid of the sun.]

[You should know that to be able to reveal one's primordial spirit under the red sun, one must have cultivated to the tenth level of Yang God.]

[During the past half month, every time Wutong came back from the market, he would tell you a piece of news: the price of rice in the market is rising every day.]

[The reason was that more and more disaster victims were pouring into the capital, and the supply from the government and the imperial court was stretched to the limit.]

[In Bianjing, turmoil gradually arose and people were in a state of panic. 】

【Wutong took advantage of the money at home to prepare some extra food in case of any emergency.】

[However, these things have nothing to do with the Nine Major Families. They deliberately raised the price of rice. Now every household in the Nine Major Families has a rice warehouse, and the grain is piled up like a mountain, and it can't be eaten up in ten years. ]

[Wutong once said that recently many of the family's stewards cleaned the granary and found that a lot of grain had gone moldy. The nine major families would rather let the grain rot in their own cellars than make full use of it.]

【Today at noon.】

[You sent Zhou Yuner and the others away, and stood in the courtyard practicing martial arts, and have reached the fifth level of martial arts, "Spring Thunder". The medicinal power of the last magician's "Heavenly Demon Blood Marrow" and Master Lianchi's "Longan Bodhi" has not yet been fully digested. ]

[Thanks to this, your martial arts foundation has become more solid these days. ]

[You no longer practice the "Taizu Shengyuan Zhuang" copied by Sima Ting. Master Lianchi once reminded you that although the first six levels of this technique are fine, the upper three levels have many hidden dangers and countermeasures. The disciples of the nine major surnames only use it to build their foundation.]

[The upper three realms of skills are only available to the royal family of Da Qi, so you know there must be something fishy about it. You are just throwing it away.]

[You are now practicing two martial arts skills. One is the "Vajra Indestructible Body Divine Skill" given by Master Lianchi. This is a Buddhist martial art. If you practice it to perfection, you will become Vajra Indestructible and can directly reach the ninth realm.]

[However, practicing Buddhist techniques may make it difficult to enter the Da Qi Academy. Nowadays, academies will not allow people who know Buddhist techniques to enter, but you don’t care about this.]

[Secondly, the "Zixia Cave Demonic Scripture" given by the magician is a method of stacking internal energy. It has nine levels in total, and each level will double the internal energy. It is not inferior to the "Dahuangting" of the Three True One Sect, and the internal energy is as vast as the ocean.]

[On your martial arts path, you practice both Buddhism and magic, both of which are precious skills that can directly reach the ninth realm of martial arts. ]

[The first is to cultivate the outer root bone membrane, and the second is to cultivate the inner Dantian. They complement each other and bring out the best in each other.]

[In the past few days, you have cultivated these two skills to the fifth realm of martial arts, and the middle three realms are also a natural progression. You estimate that you will be able to break through to the sixth realm of martial arts "Rotating Fingers" in half a month, and will also face the second gap in martial arts "Upper Three Realms". ]

[You take off your shirt, and the heat on your body surges. You activate the Vajra Indestructible Body Skill, and a layer of golden luster appears on your body.]

[The shadow of Buddha and Arhat condenses behind you. You take a deep breath and strike your hands together, making a sound like metal striking metal.]

[You take a boxing stance, and the spine behind you twists like a dragon, making a series of popping sounds.]

[You exhale slowly again, and the Buddha's light disappears, replaced by a sinister demonic aura.]

[The two completely different techniques of true energy blend in your body. When you first started practicing, you found it strange and thought that the two techniques would be incompatible.]

【However, to your surprise, the two merged peacefully. 】

[You gradually understood Xie Hong's good intentions at that time. He kept sending you Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist classics for you to study.]

[Xie Hong's destiny is based on the knowledge of the three schools, which is no less than the master's integration of hundreds of schools with Buddhist skills.]

[You sigh in your heart: "It seems that all martial arts in the world have the same goal. As the saying goes, a person has the appearance of a Confucian but the heart of a Taoist."]

[At this time! ] [You lightly lift your finger, and the clear water from the large water tank in the courtyard surges like a spirit snake, washing away the sweat on your body. ]

[You shook your hair, and your skin swelled up, like steam from Yunmeng Lake, and the moisture on your body evaporated instantly.]

[You put on your coat, tidied your hair, and walked out of the courtyard.]

[A hurried figure came running, followed by another person. ]

[The person who came is Xie Yuan. Perhaps because of your rising fame after the banquet, he dismissed all his former singing partners, leaving only Xie Hou'er.]

[“Brother Guan, something terrible is happening!”]

[Xie Yuan came hurriedly, looking excited. When he stepped over the threshold, he looked down and saw that the threshold was broken. He was shocked: "Brother Guan, why is the threshold of your house so broken?"]

[“Why are you so anxious, Sixth Brother?”]

【Xie Yuan quickly replied: "It's a rebellion! It's all a rebellion!"】

[You frowned slightly, and suddenly something occurred to you. You asked in a deep voice, "Is it about the management of the Yellow River?"]

【Xie Yuan nodded, extremely anxious: "According to the report from the Ministry of War and the governor of Jiangnan today, the civilians conscripted from the Yellow River went on strike the day before yesterday. At night, two supervisors teamed up with the civilians and killed the conscripted general who was guarding them. The situation got out of control in an instant. Three hundred thousand civilians rose up and entered the camp at night to kill the 10,000 Da Qi garrison troops."】

[“According to the latest military information, the Yellow River Rebellion has caused a great stir in the Jiangnan region. Nearly 400,000 troops have been gathered and they have surrounded the prefectures in the Jiangnan region.”]

[After saying this, his eyes were still filled with shock.]

[Such a large-scale uprising has not occurred in Da Qi for hundreds of years. 】

[You frowned when you heard this. All the gold and silver raised at the banquet were used to control the Yellow River. Why did such a change happen just half a month later?]

【Xie Yuan sat down on the stone chair, took a sip of tea, glanced around the courtyard, and asked, "Where is Wutong?"】

[“She went to the street market.”]

【Xie Yuan said hurriedly, "Now the streets of Bianjing are all blocked, chaos is rampant, people are scrambling for food on the streets, people are uneasy, let Wutong come back as soon as possible."】

[“It’s okay. She is traveling with her fourth cousin and has the Xie family’s guards.”]

【Xie Yuan nodded, then asked with a puzzled look on his face, "How could this news spread so quickly? The court only learned about it not long ago, but the people of Bianjing have already known about it."】

[You said slowly, "Perhaps someone did it on purpose and spread the news intentionally."]

[“If they hadn’t made arrangements in advance, how could they have been able to move so quickly? The generals and military officers who were able to station troops on the Yellow River were definitely not all idiots.”]

【Xie Yuan continued: "The day before the incident, someone dug out a bronze statue in the Yellow River. It had a red cloth on its head and its eyes were wide open. It was extremely scary. A Taoist priest passed by and said that this was the evil star sealed at the bottom of the Yellow River. If it appeared today, the world would be in chaos."】

[“The general who was overseeing the work coaxed the Taoist priest away, and the laborers went on strike in the afternoon.”]

[“Taoist?” You were slightly stunned. For some reason, the shadow of the Three True One Sect emerged in your mind—this is the leader of the Taoist sect in the world. Could it be that the Three True One Sect was involved in this? ]

[You hesitated for a moment and asked, "What is the banner they are waving now?"]

【Xie Yuan's expression was solemn. "The slogan they raised was a prophecy that has been circulating in Jiangnan Dao - 'Don't say that the common people are not angry, one day the royal family will be burned to ashes.'"】

[“The leader called himself ‘Red-Eyed Heavenly Lord’, and everyone else wore red cloth on their heads as a sign of respect, and they were also called the ‘Red-Eyed Army’.”]

[“Alas… this world is going to be in chaos after all.”]

【Xie Yuan sighed: "The Red Eye Army is coming with great force. If the court is slow to react, Jiangnan Road may be plunged into disaster."】

[He continued in a heavy tone, "The Ministry of War is mobilizing troops, but Jiangnan Road is thousands of miles away from Bianjing. I'm afraid that distant water cannot quench nearby fires."]

[“There is one more thing. My father was originally scheduled to return to the capital tomorrow, but now he has been transferred by Prime Minister Su to Jiangnan Road to quell the rebellion. This... he can’t even enter the house.”]

[You nodded slightly. Although this was unexpected, it was also reasonable.]

[At the time, under the rule of the Great Qi, taxes were heavy, and coupled with the raging Yellow River and repeated natural disasters, the people suffered terribly and uprisings continued. ]

[Most of the civilians who were conscripted to control the Yellow River were slaves from the Nine Major Clan. The Nine Major Clan received silver from the court, but they didn’t care about their lives and arbitrarily deducted their wages and food, causing the civilians to live in extreme hardship.]

[The river control project was huge and the labor was heavy. The laborers undertook unspeakably heavy physical labor. Many died from overwork or plague. Working day and night, most of them could not survive for more than a month.]

[You saw Xie Yuan's worried expression and asked, "Sixth brother, why are you suddenly so concerned about the affairs of the country?"]

【Xie Yuan took another sip of water and said solemnly: "If a man doesn't worry about his country, how can he worry about the young lady's belly all day long? After all, my Xie family was established through military merit."】

[“It’s a good thing that Sixth Brother has this intention.”]

【Xie Yuan stood up and said: "Brother Guan, don't go out these days. Bianjing is in chaos."】

[He looked up at the sky. Although the morning sun was already high in the sky, it could not dispel the haze in his eyes: "This world is becoming increasingly unstable."]

【Xie Hou'er comforted him, "Now that Da Qi has the Academy and Prime Minister Su is in charge of the court, you don't have to worry too much, young master."】

【Xie Yuan looked disappointed: "Academy?... I feel like it's no longer the academy it used to be."】

[“As for Prime Minister Su, he is such an unfathomable figure, how can we easily guess his intentions?”]

【Xie Yuan left in a hurry, and did not stay for long, so he said goodbye and left. 】

[You walked him to the gate, watched Xie Yuan's back gradually recede, and gently closed the gate.]

[The chaotic times are coming, Bianjing is the place where nine major families are entrenched, and the situation is still stable. 】

[But protecting yourself is the best strategy. There is no big tree behind you to rely on. Only your own cultivation is the foundation for your survival. ]

[You recall what the Great Master said before he left after the banquet, "The opportunity for ascension will come within the next ten years."]

[Could it be that only when the world is in chaos will the Ascension Platform appear in the world? ]

[This golden opportunity to ascend to heaven is right before our eyes. Everyone will go all out and give it a try. ]

[In the near future, you will fight against the world-famous masters such as the Demon Master, Master Lianchi, Mr. San, and Mr. Da. ]

[You stroll slowly under the mottled light and shadow of the sycamore tree, with your mind focused on continuing your practice.]

【Every moment is so urgent that it cannot be wasted.】

(End of this chapter)