Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 345 Crushing Zhou and Wei, Approaching Tang and Han! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

When Zhao Xu arrived at Hunyuan Palace, Wu Meiniang, Xi Shi, Huo Qubing, Guo Rong, Gongsun Da Niang, Li Bai, and Chen Tang were all there. Chen Tang even brought several sheep, showing a high level of awareness in bringing his own food.

Hearing that a ritual would be performed in the morning, Chen Tang first took a shower, then changed into his blue Taoist robe, and started waving his whisk around like a hyperactive child.

In comparison, Li Bai, the eldest disciple of Hunyuan Palace, was much more composed. He first cleaned the Sanqing Hall, then carried a shovel to clear the weeds in the courtyard, and only stopped when Zhou Yi called everyone to have breakfast.

There are many people eating today; the large round table is completely full. Guo Rong said:
"Shouldn't we get a bigger table?"

Zhou Yi took a bite of the freshly steamed sweet corn and began to talk about his plans:

"I plan to expand the courtyard and build another row of houses, including a dining room. I'll use this dining room as a study."

With so many people, it's really unreasonable that there isn't even a dedicated study room. Besides, Zhouyi's room is piled with so many things that he needs a special place to put them.

Once the new row of houses is completed, the eldest apprentice, Li Bai, will also have his own room and won't have to act as the gatekeeper of the courtyard anymore.

Zhao Xu asked:

"What materials do you need? We can ship them from our respective worlds."

Zhou Yi smiled and waved his hand:

"No need. There are professional construction teams in town, and building materials can be bought easily. It won't cost much to build a row of houses... By then, the houses around this small courtyard should be quite large."

Li Qingzhao loved the feeling of poetry and painting:

"Can we plant some flowers?"

Zhou Yi nodded:

"Sure, you can buy the seeds online for whatever you want to plant."

With more people, the vegetable garden becomes too small. So, we simply cut a hole in the courtyard wall and created a vegetable garden outside the wall. This way, we can not only grow vegetables, but also some fruits and vegetables, achieving fruit freedom.

Gongsun Da Niang asked:

"Could the restaurant be built with huge floor-to-ceiling windows? It would look so grand, and you could enjoy the view of the courtyard while you eat. It would be so beautiful."

“No problem. I’ll call Wu Aiguo, the contractor in town, over this afternoon. You can make any requests you have, and have him get the blueprints done first.”

Wu Aiguo is Wu Bo's nephew and Wu Aimin's cousin. He used to work as a contractor in the city, but now that the construction industry is in a slump, he returned to his hometown and started a team to repair houses and some livelihood projects in the town. He still earns a good income throughout the year.

After the meal, Xi Shi and Wu Meiniang cleaned up the kitchen, while the others began to tidy their appearance and make final preparations for the ceremony.

Zhou Yi sat in front of the computer, intently watching the footage of the Great Wall of Qi filmed by Xi Shi... As soon as it started playing, the ancient simplicity and grandeur of the Spring and Autumn Period immediately came to life.

The Qi Great Wall is not as tall and majestic as the Ming Great Wall, but it reveals the architectural style of the Spring and Autumn Period in many ways.

Confucius believed that the Eastern Zhou period was the worst of times and that the feudal lords were beyond redemption. He intended to write history to warn future generations and hoped that things would get better. However, when he picked up his pen to write history and reached the fourteenth year of Duke Ai of Lu, he unexpectedly saw a qilin.

In Confucianism, the Qilin is considered the most auspicious creature.

If the worst of times could still produce such auspicious omens, it would mean that each generation was worse than the last. Confucius then stopped writing history, and historians thus came to know the legend of the "unicorn pen".

The Spring and Autumn Period was an era that valued righteousness in everything. When two sides went to war, if one side was not prepared, the other side could not attack.

Although the feudal lords fought fiercely for rankings, they would send troops to help each other when one side was in trouble.

For example, Fuchai had just been showing off his power in front of Duke Dao of Qi when he heard that Duke Dao of Qi had been killed by his ministers. He knelt at the gate of the camp and cried for three days and three nights. Then he led the main force of Wu to Qi without regard for anything else, wanting to avenge Duke Dao of Qi. As a result, he was beaten badly, which caused Wu to suffer a great loss of strength.

After watching the video, Zhou Yi felt that Xi Shi really had the talent to be a travel blogger. The camera work was very comfortable, with long shots, medium shots, close-ups, and extreme close-ups. With a little editing and some ancient music, it could be a promotional video for the Great Wall of Qi.

I had just copied the video to my computer when Xi Shi walked in:

"Two days ago, I passed through the pass of the Great Wall of Qi and entered the territory of Qi. If there are no unexpected events, I will reach Linzi in a few more days. If you have any of Yan Ying's works, should you bring them with you?"

Yan Ying was a minister of the State of Qi and a capable minister under Duke Jing of Qi. He once went on a diplomatic mission to the State of Chu, leaving behind the story of "Yan Ying's Mission to Chu".

The Book of Changes says:

"Bring it if you have it, otherwise it's fine. We won't force you. It seems there have been a lot of changes in the Qi state's leadership in recent years. Once you have Tian Rangju's work, leave and don't linger."

"As ordered!"

Not long after, Uncle Ming drove the blind man, Old Qiao, and Old Lady Ji to Cloud Mist Mountain.

As soon as she got out of the car, Grandma Ji said with delight:

"The climate on the mountain is completely different from that at the foot of the mountain, it's like being in Qingcheng Mountain... Why is such a spiritually rich mountain so unknown in the history of Taoism?"

The blind man said:

"It's related to the Hunyuan Palace. Before the Hunyuan Palace was built, this was just an ordinary little mountain. After it was built, the entire mountain became shrouded in mist and full of spiritual energy." Old Qiao looked at the glazed tiles of the various halls and sighed:

“I fired them all piece by piece. Seeing these palaces, I have no regrets in this life.”

Zhou Yi led everyone out to greet them. The blind man was so surprised that the brat had quietly gathered such a gang that his beard was trembling.

Old Qiao and Old Lady Ji stared at everyone until Zhou Yi came over to greet them, at which point they snapped out of their daze.

After exchanging pleasantries, the group arrived at the Sanqing Hall. The blind man suppressed his curiosity and began selecting participants for the divination.

With so many people around today, he decided to use two people for each location to maximize the success rate.

The blind man and Zhou Yi are in the Qian position, Wu Meiniang and Zhao Yan are in the Kun position, Huo Qubing and Chen Tang are in the Gen position, Xi Shi and Ji Laotai are in the Dui position, Zhao Xu and Li Bai are in the Zhen position, Guo Rong and Zhao Rui are in the Xun position, Lao Qiao and Ming Shu are in the Li position, and Li Qingzhao and Gongsun Da Niang are in the Kan position.

The group stood in the Sanqing Hall according to the Bagua directions. The blind man held a Bagua abacus and explained the various tricks and essentials of the Bagua abacus to Zhou Yi while performing calculations.

This matter concerns the fate of the Chinese nation. Even with this setup, everyone still felt very strained. It was as if the surrounding air had solidified, and they felt indescribably uncomfortable all over. But they couldn't leave because everyone was now part of the formation.

The blind man was sweating profusely and eventually stopped explaining. He meticulously followed the procedure and deduced the steps until half an hour later, when the whole process was finally over.

Zhao Rui plopped down on the ground, looked at the bananas on the offering table, and asked:

"I...I'm so hungry, can I have half a stick?"

Zhou Yi grabbed a handful of bananas, broke them open, and gave one to each of her and Zhao Yan:
"The patriarch has already enjoyed it; you may eat as much as you like."

Then, he gave the remaining bananas to Aunt Gongsun and asked the girl to help distribute them... After this ceremony, everyone was exhausted.

Grandma Ji sat on the futon and said:
"This is all it takes to predict the fate of the Song Dynasty capital. If we were to predict the current nation's destiny..."

Old Joe reminded him:
"Don't do that. A few years ago, a group of 'lamas' tried to interfere with the nation's destiny and ended up being reduced to dust... The nation's destiny is not something ordinary people can touch. Don't even think about it."

Zhou Yi walked up to the blind man, looked at him, and asked:
"How's it going? Is there any result?"

The blind man nodded and stated the deduced answer:
"To crush Zhou and Wei, to rival Tang and approach Han... Do you know what this means?"

The old man intended to test Zhou Yi, but before Zhou could speak, Wu Meiniang said:

"Should we build it on the site of the capitals of the Zhou and Northern Wei dynasties? It's adjacent to the capital of the Han dynasty to the east and the capital of the Tang dynasty to the west?"

Although Luoyang has been the location of the capital since ancient times, it is not a city.

The capitals of the Xia Dynasty (Zhenxun), the Shang Dynasty (Xibo), the Zhou Dynasty (Chengzhou and Wangcheng), the Han and Wei Dynasties (Luoyang), and the Sui and Tang Dynasties (Dongdu) were all located in different places.

For example, the capital of the Han Dynasty was located east of the White Horse Temple, while the capital of the Sui and Tang Dynasties was located further west, with a distance of nine kilometers between them.

Now, the blind man has deduced that the capital city is located in the nine-kilometer-wide blank space between the two places.

Zhou Yi opened his tablet, tapped on the Luoyang map, and marked the maps of different periods. He could see that the Northern Wei Luoyang city was really big, and the Han Dynasty capital had become the inner city of the Northern Wei.

Granny Gongsun, eating a banana, leaned over and took a look:
Why are all these cities crooked and twisted?

This is quite clear in the Book of Changes:

"It's for the central axis. For example, in the Tang Dynasty capital, the central axis was from Cui Yunfeng to Yique, which is the direction of the Longmen Grottoes."

The axis of Luoyang City during the Sui and Tang Dynasties was not centered, but was determined by the Luo River, Mangshan Mountain, Yique Pass, and the general trend of the world. This irregularity was actually the best expression of conforming to the natural world.

The design of the entire capital city perfectly embodies the concept of harmony between man and nature. Anyone who studies feng shui cannot ignore the pinnacle of the Sui and Tang Dynasty Luoyang City.

Uncle Ming glanced at the blank space between the capitals of the Sui and Tang dynasties and the Eastern Han dynasty, and asked Zhou Yi:
"Xiao Yi, how do you plan to design the central axis? Whether it's the Cuiyun Peak-Yique line or the Mangshan-Huanqiu line, the resulting city will be very slanted, which won't be visually appealing."

Zhao Xu leaned closer to listen attentively, wanting to know how his master would arrange things.

Zhou Yi drew a perfectly rectangular shape on the map, nine kilometers wide from east to west and thirteen kilometers long from north to south, and then said:
"Why must the central axis be drawn according to the topography of Luoyang? Can't we broaden our perspective and take the North and South Poles as the central axis?"

Uncle Ming gasped:
"Damn, no emperor can control a capital city like Luoyang, which is in harmony with nature. If you keep doing this, the Song Dynasty will probably fall even faster, right?"

Zhou Yi said with a smile:

"It's okay, I'm just writing it for fun in my novel anyway."

Guo Rong peeked around and secretly took a picture of the capital's location with his phone... If the Song Dynasty can repair it, then the Later Zhou Dynasty can too. Anyway, the foreign tribes are paying for it, so why not repair it?

That was the end of the story. Old Joe and Old Lady Ji wanted to stay for a meal, but the blind man refused.
"I'm leaving now. I need to recover properly. You all stay here and protect me."

When Uncle Ming drove down the mountain, the blind man finally breathed a sigh of relief:

“These people come from different eras, the furthest being the Spring and Autumn Period… Although we don’t know what big thing Old Zhou is planning, since we’ve run into them, we definitely have to lend a hand!”

(End of this chapter)