One Qi Chaoyang

Chapter 214: Listening to the Mountain Gate from afar
I reached out and picked a red leaf and put it in my mouth to chew. It tasted bitter at first, but then it actually tasted sweet after chewing.

This is a common shrub on Mount Qiyun. The young leaves can be picked to make tea. Zhao Fuyun has no interest in drinking tea or alcohol. He just picks a leaf and puts it in his mouth to chew, but his mouth just feels lonely.

The mouth will feel lonely, and so will people, no matter who they are. So he needs to walk around in addition to practicing, looking at the mountains, the fog, and the flame forest.

Of course, he will also meet some people here, such as the female priest of Xiangyang Temple in the next temple.

Her temple was not rented but inherited. Zhao Fuyun had talked with her for a few words and learned that her name was Zhang Zhuqing. She was brought to the mountain by her master since she was a child. There was a small red bamboo forest around the temple where she was.

She likes to play the flute, and she doesn't have a fixed time. She probably just plays it when she's lonely and bored. The flute sounds melodious, sometimes accompanied by the wind, sometimes entangled in the starlight, and sometimes following the glow of the morning sun.

But more often, it is in the sunset.

When Zhao Fuyun heard it, he always felt that the sound of the flute was saying goodbye to the sunset every day.

At this time, if Zhao Fuyun happened to have finished his practice, he would listen, sometimes sitting in the temple to listen, and sometimes going outside to listen.

If you listen from outside, you can vaguely see her figure. Her temple is located much higher than Zhao Fuyun's temple. The place where she plays the flute is on a high ground. There is a stone sticking out like a palm, and under the stone is a red bamboo forest, and the bamboo forest seems to be under her feet.

She was wearing a white dress that fluttered in the wind, but her hair and eyebrows were red.

Zhao Fuyun didn't know if it was caused by the practice she had, or if she was born that way.

However, even with red hair and red eyebrows, her skin was very white, which was somewhat different from the white of her clothes. Her clothes were silvery white, while her skin was a watery jade-like white, even giving a clean and translucent feeling.

The sound of her flute was very pleasant. Zhao Fuyun didn't know which one sounded better, the flute played by Jin Xiuzhi from Mount Li or hers, but at this moment he felt that her flute sound and the sound of the wind in the mountains merged into one, like an invisible spring flowing in the mountains.

In the sunset, the mountains and forests are covered with red.

He stood there looking at the clouds and the eaves of other temples looming among the trees.

It is also a kind of beauty to listen to the sound of the flute from time to time.

Night arrived as expected, and the stars appeared from nothingness, shining brightly.

I don't know when the sound of the flute disappeared, and the moon shone in front of the temple, bringing peace and tranquility.

Another day has passed.

In the blink of an eye, a year has passed.

The days here are extremely peaceful, and everyone is guarding their own temple.

However, the temple in front of Zhao Fuyun seemed to be holding some celebration today and it has been quite lively recently.

Zhao Fuyun knew that the temple in front belonged to the Chaoyang Sect, which liked the morning sun the most.

That temple is much larger than the one Zhao Fuyun built, with several pavilions. Its full name is Danfeng Temple, which means red phoenix facing the sun.

The temple master had spoken to Zhao Fuyun a few times. He was a serious but enthusiastic person, cold on the outside but warm on the inside.

As the day approaches, Danfeng Temple inevitably becomes lively, breaking the inherent tranquility.

Many Xuan Guang disciples arrived, and some had only recently joined the sect, totaling thirty or forty people. So some people came to Zhao Fuyun's temple to see. They were just curious.

Zhao Fuyun could hear people who followed them in the temple saying, "This temple is rented out by the mountain for fellow Taoists from outside to collect true fire. We should not disturb it."

He could tell that the person who was speaking was a disciple of Taoist Priest Jin Yang, the temple keeper of Danfeng Temple. His name seemed to be Mian Feng. He was in the Xuan Guang realm, or what could be called the Xuan Guang condensed realm. He could control magical instruments and draw talismans in the void. He had seen the other party practicing magic in the forest.

After he said not to disturb them, everyone's voices became much quieter. Zhao Fuyun was drawing the Sun's True Fire in the room and ignored them. After a moment of silence, someone said, "Brother Mianfeng, can we go to the Xiangyang Temple up there? I heard that there lives a red-haired fairy with a profound Taoist charm in the Xiangyang Temple. Is that true?"

"Uncle Zhang doesn't like to be disturbed." Mian Feng said.

"We'll just take a look from a distance and not disturb Uncle Zhang." Someone said immediately.

The voices and footsteps faded away.

Zhao Fuyun extracted the true fire of the sun, and another day passed.

In the blink of an eye, it was night again. Zhao Fuyun was soaking the sun's true fire with the Youquan water when he suddenly heard a scolding. It was Zhang Zhuqing's voice, coming from the Xiangyang Temple above.

He frowned slightly but did not go out.

He just looked outside the temple and saw the flickering fire, and felt the heat surging and shining in the direction of Xiangyang Temple. Zhao Fuyun came to the temple gate and saw a man running towards the Danfeng Temple in front, and Zhang Zhuqing was chasing him. Many people immediately rushed out of the Danfeng Temple in front.

So they confronted each other in front of the temple.

Zhang Zhuqing had a female disciple who was very aggressive and cursed at people in a very unpleasant way. The other people in Danfeng Temple probably figured out what was going on and felt they were in the wrong, so they naturally didn't want to talk back. However, when Zhang Zhuqing asked them to hand over the people, they were absolutely unwilling to do so.

Zhao Fuyun came to the side and watched the confrontation between the two parties. If a fight were to break out, it would be obvious that Zhang Zhuqing's side would suffer. She was just one person, while the many people on the opposite side, although most of them were disciples, were also brought by their master.

Everyone also saw Zhao Fuyun watching the excitement there. Of course, he was not the only one. The Danfeng Temple broke the tranquility of the area. The temples in the area were also alarmed by the excitement, and many people were watching from afar.

Of course, it ended up in nothing, and Zhao Fuyun certainly didn't ask about it.

Afterwards, Danfeng Temple also tightened its control and no bad incidents happened again.

However, he also saw that after the celebration, the priest of Danfeng Temple went to Xiangyang Temple. He didn't know whether it was to apologize or to explain his difficulties.

Afterwards, the priest of Danfeng Temple saw that he was outside the temple and not practicing, so he came over and said that he had disturbed him these days.

Of course, Zhao Fuyun would not say anything like you were too noisy before, nor did he ask what happened that night.

Everything returned to normal, but not long after, Zhao Fuyun discovered that Zhang Zhuqing from the Xiangyang Temple above him had left with his disciples.

He came back three months later.

Not long after that, Taoist Jin Yang from Dan Feng Temple suddenly rushed into Xiang Yang Temple and had an argument with Zhang Zhu Qing, the temple keeper. Zhao Fu Yun seemed to hear him say vaguely, "Junior Sister Zhang, you are too bold..."

"You can report me..." These are Zhang Zhuqing's words.

Afterwards, Taoist Jinyang lowered his voice again, and Zhao Fuyun could not hear it.

Zhao Fuyun guessed that Zhang Zhuqing might have gone down the mountain during the past three months to kill the person who offended him. The other party obviously had an extraordinary family background, so he protected him at that time. Now that the other party is dead, Taoist Jinyang guessed that it was Zhang Zhuqing who did it, so he heard a few incoherent conversations now.

Zhao Fuyun couldn't care less about other people's affairs, he continued to draw the sun's true fire every day.

Another year has passed.

Taoist Jinyang from the Danfeng Temple in front went down the mountain with several of his disciples, leaving only his second disciple Mianshan and two newly-minted disciples to guard the temple.

Later, the second disciple Mianshan came to visit Zhao Fuyun. Zhao Fuyun learned that the other party was invited by Jingque Taoist Palace in the capital to be a Taoist master.

It was from him that Zhao Fuyun learned that the Palace Master of Jingque Taoist Palace had been replaced by Fenglei Zhenren of Tiandu Mountain.

This news surprised Zhao Fuyun, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt it was very normal because the Jingque Taoist Palace was previously controlled by the Grand Tutor.

The monks recommended by various counties and prefectures entered the Taoist Palace in Beijing. Although they were disciples of the emperor and selected talents for the country, they were actually truly close to the Grand Tutor of Luoxian Temple, because the Taoist masters there were appointed and dismissed by the Grand Tutor.

The aristocratic families from all over the country controlled the quotas to enter the Quedao Palace in Beijing, resulting in people who were not from aristocratic families having no chance to enter, and naturally unable to serve the court. Even if they could, they had to rely on the connections of the aristocratic families to enter the court.

The imperial court has now introduced a new policy for selecting officials, which is to set aside the recommendation of aristocratic families and create a direct path for selecting officials.

Zhao Fuyun didn’t know how the Daoziyuan in various places were being built at the moment, because he didn’t focus his energy on this aspect.

So, he took the opportunity to ask the new Palace Master of Jingque Taoist Palace if he knew about the situation of Tiandu Mountain. The other party replied: "I heard that Tiandu Mountain was split. One part entered the world, such as Fenglei Zhenren entering Jingque Taoist Palace. Another group of Tiandu Mountain scattered to Taoist temples in various places, and another part of the people were sealed in the mountains for meditation."

Zhao Fuyun frowned as he listened. As a disciple of Tiandu Mountain, he didn't know about the split. But to say that it was groundless was not true, because there were signs of this when he was in the mountain.

"Is it really a split?" Zhao Fuyun thought.

But he also felt that it couldn't be the case, at least Master Xun or Ma Sanhu had never given him any hint in this regard. Master Xun just told him not to go back to the mountain, but to practice well and open up the Purple Mansion as soon as possible.

Apart from asking himself to check whether the people on the list had done anything wrong at the beginning, Ma Sanhu had never targeted anyone.

Another thing is that there is a great enemy, the Daluo Secret Sect, hiding in the dark at Tiandu Mountain, so it is unlikely to split up at this time.

He had doubts in his heart, but they were not something he could resolve right now. The only thing he could do was to practice well and open up the Purple Mansion as soon as possible.

In the blink of an eye, another year had passed. He had collected half of the Sun's True Fire in the big bottle and placed it in the darkness. It looked like a golden liquid, emitting a golden-red glow, as if a little sun was imprisoned in the bottle.

(End of this chapter)