I became an immortal in the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 278 The trouble comes from the mouth
The students of Chongxuan Hall were completely unfazed by the cold, playing their zithers with their robes open. The melodious music began, and not long after, one of the students sneezed.

"It's much colder today."

someone said:
“Zhang Shiba, you’ve been away for the past two months, so you may not know, but a lot of auspicious omens have recently appeared in Chang’an. My cousin personally saw five-colored clouds rolling by the Wei River. Not only that, but a precious pearl has also appeared in the world.”

"This is a sign of a prosperous era."

Zhang Shibalang forced a smile.

Unbeknownst to the other students, a student in green was showing interest:
"It just so happens that Mr. Xing Hepu has returned. We humbly seek his guidance and are sure to be able to obtain a divination from him. Our Taoist school will surely prosper."

They were students of Chongxuan Academy. The rise of Taoism was due to the rise of their Chongxuan Academy.

The student in green lowered his voice and spoke again.

“I heard my father say that the sage intended to open a separate ‘Taoist examination’. Now that we are studying Taoism, we can be ranked alongside the imperial examination and become a proper path to officialdom.”

"That's why the sage invited people like Mr. Xing Hepu, Mr. Luo Gongyuan, and Master Guanyan to give us lectures."

Everyone's eyes were sparkling.

These are all related to their careers.

The Chongxuan Academy in Chang'an and Luoyang now only accepts eighty students, who are either members of the imperial family or sons of officials of the fifth rank or above.

Among the crowd, Zhang Shibalang swayed slightly.

He turned his head and looked into the distance. Mr. Xing Hepu was walking closer and talking to someone. Mr. Xing, who was famous for his divine calculations, seemed to have noticed his gaze and also glanced in his direction.

Zhang Shibalang felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

Someone put down their wine cup and said with a smile:
"In my opinion, Buddhism will surely flourish as well."

"I heard that Master Guanyan is highly regarded by the Sage and the Crown Prince, and was even summoned to the palace to preach to the Sage. He is indeed of noble birth, and is worthy of traveling with Zhang Guolao."

"No wonder Mr. Xing vomited blood on the spot after predicting his fate... Zhang Shiba, Zhang Shiba!"

"Zhang Shiba, why did you faint?!"

Zhang Shiba's face grew increasingly pale, and he felt flustered and short of breath. The more his classmates talked, the more he thought about his experiences over the past month, and about Xing Hepu, who already knew the whole story.

"thump--"

He fainted.

"Hey! Zhang Shiba!"

Everyone hurriedly helped the person up.

Some slapped his face, others pinched his philtrum, creating a chaotic scene. Under their shoving and pushing, Zhang Shibalang quickly woke up.

He kept his eyes tightly shut, pretending not to hear his classmate calling him.

Some of the students sighed deeply.

"It seems that Zhang Shiba's illness is indeed serious. He has only been in school for two days and has already fainted again. I wonder what kind of serious illness he has."

"Yes, how could it be so serious?"

"I heard that the Zhang family bought a lot of Night-Shining Sand and Five-Tortoise Dextrin. Is this for treating eye diseases?"

"Or perhaps to promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis?"

After guessing for a while, no one could come up with an answer. Someone then gave instructions to the servants.

"Go get the doctor!"

The students hurriedly helped Zhang Shibalang up, with two people supporting him on either side, while others followed behind, escorting him to a quiet room to wait for the doctor to come and examine him.

Zhang Shibalang kept his eyes closed the whole way, trying to relax his limbs, and was half-pushed and half-supported by his classmate.

The group brushed past Xing Hepu in a disheveled state.

Xing Hepu stopped and looked over.

Beside the two, the student who had led the way also stopped, looked at them with surprise, sized them up, and hesitated in his voice.

"What are you..."

"Zhang Shiba has fainted. It seems his condition has relapsed. We were just about to take him to a quiet room to rest while we wait for the doctor to arrive," someone explained.

"Then hurry up and go, don't delay."

Among the students, someone spotted Xing Hepu and mustered up the courage to ask him.

"Mr. Xing, what illness does Zhang Shiba have? Why is it so serious?"

Zhang Shibalang's breath hitched, and he tightly closed his eyes.

Xing Hepu gave the students a playful look, whetting their appetites, and only after watching the "unconscious person's" chest rise and fall more and more significantly did he slowly say:

"This illness..."

“Diseases and calamities all come from the mouth.”

"I'm just helping with the divination. As for what kind of serious illness it is, you can ask him yourselves. Whether he'll tell you or not is another matter."

Zhang Shibalang, still unconscious, had trembling eyelashes. If it weren't for the students listening to Xing Hepu, he would have been discovered long ago. After the students bowed and dispersed...

Xing Hepu withdrew his gaze before speaking to Jiang She.

"I'm sorry to have made you laugh, sir."

Jiang She smiled and said, "It was just a bit of fun on my part at the time, watching from the sidelines. I wanted to see Master Guo use his magic to cure this student's habit of speaking ill of others."

"It really is a gentleman!"

Xing Hepu turned his head and glanced at the students who were being supported by their classmates.

"Then he must have kept it in mind."

"Wonderful! I never expected that Zhang Shiba would actually try the Night Fragrance. Only a few days later did he remember Night Glow Sand and took it for more than half a month. Haha."

No wonder he only came to study yesterday.

Night-shining sand comes from bat droppings.

Wulingzhi comes from flying squirrels, or it can be said to be rat droppings.

Xing Hepu found it increasingly amusing, and he burst into laughter. He walked all the way into the school and only stopped laughing when he heard the clear sounds of reading and chanting.

……

……

Hearing footsteps approaching, the monk looked up, assuming it was another student seeking instruction. The next moment, he froze, stood up, and bowed to the person before him.

"Sir is here."

Jiang She, dressed in blue, stood in front of him, with a cat beside him.

Xing Hepu rubbed his face, which was a little sore from laughing, and said.

"I want to discuss the methods of divination with you, and I just thought of the eminent monk."

"There are too many people and too much chatter here. Would the venerable monk be willing to come with us?"

When Mr. Jiang asked, Xing Hepu just happened to think of this eminent monk who was both extremely wealthy and powerful but died young, making him a suitable example.

The monk glanced at Jiang She.

He clasped his hands together.

"can."

Xing Hepu had thought it would take him a long time to persuade Master Guanyan, but he was surprised that the high monk was so good-natured that he was happy to do it without having to use any words.

He led the two to a quiet room with two doors at the front and back, behind which was a large bamboo grove.

It's rare to have the opportunity to explain divination to a master; surely that master isn't one of those blockheaded servants, nor one of those stupid, pig-like students from the Chongxuan Academy.

Xing Hepu had a slight smile on his lips.

On the way, he met two students who asked him when he had been teaching recently. They had many questions two months ago and couldn't understand the divination chart on the wall. They wanted to ask him for help.

Xing Hepu waved his hand and said casually.

"Go ask my servants."

"They know more than you do."

The door to the quiet room slammed shut in front of him.

How could servants teach sons of nobles like them? The two students blushed, but dared not contradict their teacher.

The door was tightly shut right in front of them, and they couldn't hear anything from inside.

The two students exchanged a glance.

One of them said:

"This is outrageous! The servants of the Xing family are merely literate; how could they compare to us, who are well-versed in the Five Classics?"

"that is!"

"I'm afraid they don't even know who Zhuangzi and Liezi are!"

"So...should we still go see that servant?"

"Go ahead, let them see what's what, so that Mr. Xing won't keep sending people to fob us off."

The two students, full of vigor, turned around and went to the door to find the Xing family's servants.

The divination written on the wall that day was so profound that not a single student or teaching assistant at Chongxuan Academy could comprehend it.

They didn't believe a servant could understand it.

【Ask for monthly ticket】

(End of this chapter)