I changed the world.

"As the saying goes, 'Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles,' and the Master has also grasped the essence of this..." Xu Hanzhang complimented from the side.

“I see…” An Huiling then feigned curiosity: “By the way, I’ve heard that there are many branches within the Xuanmen sect. I don’t know which branch of the Xuanmen the Qinghe Palace inherited from.”

"Oh? Miss An is very knowledgeable. It seems you know quite a bit about my Xuanmen?"

"I wouldn't presume to know, but I have indeed heard about it."

Upon hearing this, Master Liyuan nodded, still maintaining a calm smile, exuding an air of superiority: "So that Miss An may know, my Qinghe Palace lineage is a legitimate branch of the Xuanmen, originating from Dinghai Yunxiao Mountain, one of the three Xuanmen Mountains, a branch descended from the Supreme Heavenly Venerable..."

“I see, I’m so sorry, so sorry…” An Huiling said thoughtfully, then looked at her mother and smiled, “Mom, let’s go in and take a look. This is my first time here.”

The group then headed back into the temple. As it was a family temple, it wasn't very large. After entering the mountain gate, there was a courtyard with a bronze incense burner in the center. To the left and right were side halls. One side hall served as a guest room, providing a place to rest while offering incense, while the other side hall was a vegetarian kitchen where a special chef prepared vegetarian meals.

Directly in front is the Sanqing Hall, a double-eaved hip-roofed building facing south. It has seven bays in width and five bays in depth, with a Qi Dynasty beam and ridge timber structure, grand brackets, and intricate wooden structure, which looks quite exquisite and ancient.

An Huiling looked around, praised it a few times, and then followed An Xuqing inside. The main hall naturally housed statues of the Three Pure Ones, each more than a person tall, with extremely fine craftsmanship. It was said that they were made by artisans from Wujiang who had been making statues for generations, and they were quite expensive.

However, when An Huiling's gaze fell on the incense burner in front of the central statue of the Supreme Heavenly Venerable, she frowned slightly. She saw that there were three sticks of sandalwood, each as thick as a child's arm, burning inside, which filled the entire hall with a rich sandalwood fragrance.

She hesitated, then ultimately said nothing more. At that moment, Master Liyuan, who was standing nearby, fetched three more large sticks of sandalwood and said with a smile, "As the saying goes, incense can penetrate the three realms, and smoke can reach the highest heavens. This fine sandalwood is most pleasing to the immortals, Miss An..."

As he spoke, he handed the item in his hand to An Huiling.

An Huiling was about to offer incense, but when she saw the sandalwood incense sticks as thick as a child's arm, she shook her head: "Incense arises from sincerity, and smoke comes from faith. Just give me three sticks of ordinary incense, Master."

The monk, upon hearing this, suppressed his smile and was about to speak when Lu Xuhan, standing to the side, chuckled and smoothed things over: "Master, this incense is indeed very heavy, even I find it tiring to hold, let alone a young lady... My cousin is right, sincerity is key, I suppose the Heavenly Venerable won't mind."

His words made it seem as if An Huiling was only complaining about the weight of the incense. Master Liyuan's expression softened slightly, and he immediately went to retrieve three sticks of incense, handing them back to An Huiling: "Please, Miss An."

An Huiling reached out and took the three incense sticks. As she took the incense, she pinched the base of her thumb with the tip of her left index finger, using this gesture to support her right hand as she took the three incense sticks.

Her gesture was extremely subtle, seemingly just a casual catch, but out of the corner of her eye she kept observing Master Liyuan's expression.

If Master Liyuan had claimed to be a successor of another lineage, An Huiling wouldn't have been so sure. However, he said he was from the Yunxiao Mountain branch, a legitimate successor of one of the three Xuanmen Mountains. An Huiling, being a Kunlun disciple, naturally knew that Yunxiao Mountain was Kunlun's outer sect in the secular world. While learning her skills, her teacher had also passed down many internal hand seals and incantations, many of which were used to distinguish between insiders and outsiders and to transmit information.

The Yunxiao lineage originated from the Huangtiandao sect 2000 years ago. From its inception, it faced suppression, investigation, and even persecution from the ruling powers. Consequently, for a considerable period in history, it remained a secretive sect.

This led to the development of numerous coded and sign language systems. Both Xiao Daoguang in his previous life and Zhang Taihe in this life were very familiar with this system, so they introduced it into Kunlun and modified it. This was also what Zhang Jing agreed with, since a secret sect would be somewhat lacking without these.

The gesture An Huiling is making when she receives incense, with the hand gesture of her left hand, is a hidden sign language. This gesture, which seems meaningless to outsiders, would be understood by the person who is truly a disciple of the Yunxiao lineage as a "greeting upon entering the temple." They would also immediately realize that the other party is most likely a fellow disciple.

However, in An Huiling's observation, this Master Liyuan did not notice this gesture from beginning to end.

An Huiling took the incense stick and lit it on the candle beside her. Her fingers trembled slightly, and the incense tip shook, the flame of which had already gone out. This involved the sect's rules: when offering incense, the flame must not be blown out with one's mouth.

Next, she came to the statue of the Supreme Heavenly Venerable in the center of the main hall, with her left hand on the outside and her right hand on the inside, holding three sticks of incense. She raised both hands to her chest, which implies the meaning of "heartfelt incense". The tips of the incense sticks were raised to her eyebrows, which implies the meaning of "knocking on the gate of heaven".

Afterwards, she respectfully bowed three times to the statue of the Supreme Heavenly Venerable in front of her. Then she took two steps forward to the incense burner in the main hall. Holding incense in her right hand, she first took the middle stick of the three sticks in her right hand with her left hand and inserted it into the incense burner. Then, she took the second stick of incense and inserted it to the right of the first stick, with the incense sticks spaced no more than an inch apart. Then she inserted the third stick of incense to the left of the first stick.

After that, she repeated the process twice more in front of the other two statues of the Great Celestials, but only once in front of each of the two statues.

Originally, Master Liyuan seemed to be preparing to explain the precautions for offering incense to her, but after An Huiling's smooth and graceful movements, the master couldn't bring himself to say anything. He simply asked from the side, "Miss An seems to know some Taoist etiquette?"

“I know a little about it,” An Huiling said calmly. Seeing that she didn’t seem to want to talk more, Master Liyuan nodded again and didn’t say anything more. He just instructed the temple workers to put some new incense oil lamps in front of the statues of the great deities.

PS: There was a typo in the previous text. Jean Plantard is a wizard path puppeteer, not a saint path puppeteer. This is to clarify that the error in the previous text has been corrected.

Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 718 The Traces of Power

On the offering table in front of the three statues, there are already many similar sesame oil lamps.

"May your life be forever bright and pure, and may you always enjoy wealth, honor, peace, and happiness..."

Then, Master Liyuan chanted a line aloud, flicked his sleeve, and with a "whoosh," flames suddenly shot up from all the ever-burning lamps, and a chorus of exclamations arose from the surrounding area.

Mei'er, standing behind An Huiling, also stared wide-eyed, as if watching a magic show.

"Miss, look, it's amazing..." she exclaimed softly from the side.

An Huiling, however, had already discerned that there was indeed a trace of "power" in that attack. But to her, this power was subtle and hidden, completely unlike the grand and imposing power she had felt from her master and senior brothers. This power had a strange feeling that she couldn't quite put her finger on. With her limited experience, she couldn't immediately pinpoint what was wrong with it. However, she knew that she instinctively rejected this power.

unorthodox methods...

“Lingling, look, this Master Liyuan is a highly accomplished Xuanmen master. If you have any questions, you can ask him. He has been staying at the temple these days. It was only after much persuasion from your mother that he agreed to stay at our house for a while…” An Xuqing came to her daughter’s side and spoke to her in a low voice.

An Huiling knew that since she recovered from her illness, her mother had begun to believe in Taoism. Judging from the situation, it was likely that she had not only "persuaded" her mother, but had also offered her a considerable "offering".

But in front of her mother, she didn't say what it was, only smiled and said, "Mom, you're so kind, I understand..."

................................................

承和三十七年 2016年4月4日11:43 江陵信合坊魏宅

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival; according to the customs of Erhai Dazhao, Erwei Chengguangqiu returned home from school today. He will celebrate the festival at home, but tomorrow morning, he will go to the cemetery outside the city to pay respects to his ancestors.

Wei Chengguang's home is a villa in Xinhefang, a mid-to-high-end community in Jiangling with a low population density. Wei Chengguang's parents are business people who run a trading company. Because the economy has been relatively active in recent years, the trading company has also been expanding, and they belong to the high-income class with an annual income of over ten million yuan. They don't usually pay much attention to Wei Chengguang's studies and life, but they do send him money regularly.

He spent some time online in his room, feeling a bit bored and hungry, so he went out to see when lunch would be ready. Since he started cultivating, he had become very hungry, and his appetite had more than doubled.

As he came out of his room on the second floor and into the corridor, he suddenly heard a sound coming from his father's study on the first floor. It seemed that his father was on the phone.

"...It's been falling for several days in a row...Yes...I feel like it's at a low point..."

"Yes...deep space concept stocks are leading the decline...this is already the lowest point this year..."

"You think so too? Yes...yes..."

"I also feel this opportunity is rare... I read stock market commentary yesterday... many experts analyzed that this level has bottomed out..."

"I feel like I can...yes...I'm going to shoot it..."

"Yes...yes...all in...such a great opportunity..."

..............................

………………

Wei Chengguang listened in the corridor. Although his father's study was closed, with his enhanced perception after cultivation, it was not difficult for him to hear his father's words clearly through a wall.

He only listened for a few sentences before he roughly understood that his father was discussing stock trading with someone. He had always known that his father was involved in stocks, which his father explained as "allocating a portion of his funds to the stock market to enjoy the dividends of economic development." However, due to the consistently stable economic growth, the stock market in Dazhao has generally been in a long-term positive trend, and therefore, his father's funds in the stock market had previously yielded considerable profits.

In fact, this is also a popular wealth management method among the middle class and many high-net-worth individuals in Dazhao. Unlike the A-shares market in Zhang Jing's previous life, Dazhao in this world has not encountered any special suppression. The rapid development of deep space technology has also made the conflicts between countries less intense. Although there is some competition, cooperation is the main form of cooperation. In addition, the stable economic fundamentals have made the stock market more stable. Naturally, this has attracted many people who consider themselves "knowledgeable" and "savvy about investing" and are eager to increase the value of their funds through investment, but who cannot find a better way, to enter this market.

Wei Chengguang usually wouldn't pay attention to his parents' actions, but this time, it was clear that his father was planning something big...

Although he didn't understand stocks, he knew some information he had obtained from the sect. Compared to those stock commentators who knew nothing, he clearly knew what had happened at Fengsui Fortress...

Not long after, Wei Chengguang saw his father come out of the room and hurry towards the kitchen. Wei Chengguang was more careful and pretended to watch TV in the living room, but he kept his ears open and listened to his parents' murmurs in the kitchen.

Sure enough, his parents were discussing withdrawing all their savings and investing it all in the stock market, hoping to take advantage of the year's low point and make a fortune...

He frowned. Although he didn't usually pay attention to his parents' business, as a college student about to enter the workforce, he was roughly aware of his family's financial situation. His parents' business seemed to be making a lot of money, but the investment was also substantial. Businesses like trading companies involve a lot of cash flow, and if the cash flow ran into problems in the future...

Even though he has now embarked on the path of cultivation and has little interest in making money, it is, after all, the culmination of his parents' life's work...

..........................................

At lunchtime, the Wei family of three sat around a round table to eat. Today was the Cold Food Festival, so their lunch consisted of no large dishes of meat or fish, but rather Cold Food porridge with fried dough twists. The porridge was made with almonds, inula flowers, coltsfoot flowers, and rice.

Sazi is a type of deep-fried food made from glutinous rice flour or rolled into thin ropes, twisted into rings, and deep-fried until golden brown. In addition, there are also some green rice dumplings and cold dishes to accompany porridge.

The family chatted about everyday topics while eating, with the parents occasionally discussing the current stock market situation. The father had always managed the family's stock account, and due to his consistent success, the mother considered him an expert in the field and trusted him implicitly.

Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 719 I Have a Classmate...

Wei Chengguang had been pondering when to speak, and finally, when his father enthusiastically brought up the enormous opportunities inherent in the deep space concept again, he held the bowl in his hands and casually asked, "Dad, are you planning to invest in deep space concept stocks?"

When his son asked, Wei Hanwen smiled and said, "Yes, the deep space concept stocks have been falling sharply for several days. They're currently at a historical low for the year, which is a good opportunity to buy in..."

Then he launched into a long-winded explanation of the future direction of human interstellar travel and the long-term positive outlook for deep space... Finally, he concluded, "You're all grown up now, so you need to pay attention to these kinds of economic information. How to invest is a very important skill, and Dad will teach you more about it in the future. Also, you need to keep an eye on the family business; eventually, it will be your turn to take over Mom and Dad's business..."

Wei Chengguang listened patiently to his father's rambling words. Finally, when his father finished speaking, he said, "I heard some news that I think is quite important. I just heard you mention stocks, and I felt I had to tell you about it."

Wei Hanwen didn't realize what important thing his son was about to say; he just smiled and placed his chopsticks down to indicate that he was listening.

“I have a close classmate whose family has a very powerful background…” Wei Chengguang began, pausing deliberately when he said “very powerful background,” “So, not many people know about this, so please don’t tell anyone…”

Seeing his son's hesitation, Wei Hanwen became interested and laughed, "You're worried that your parents will say something inappropriate? Your parents aren't big mouths."

"You can't tell your business friends either. If word gets out, it'll cause a lot of trouble with my classmates..."

"Alright, alright, hurry up and tell me..."

"I heard that the three test ships that were sent out this time have run into problems..." Wei Chengguang said vaguely.

Upon hearing his son's words, Wei Hanwen's relaxed smile vanished. As a veteran stock market investor, he immediately thought of the recent sharp decline in the stock market's deep-space concept stocks. Currently, rumors are flying everywhere in the market, and everyone is guessing, but so far there is no reliable explanation. The mainstream opinion is that this is a thorough shakeout before large funds enter the market.

But if what the son said is true... then there might be another explanation...

"Do you know what the problem is?" Wei Hanwen stopped eating and asked.

“I don’t know the specifics, but I heard that one of the three test ships has returned with a major problem, and the authorities are currently controlling the information and not allowing it to be released.” Wei Chengguang glanced at his parents, who were staring at him, thought for a moment, and then added, “According to my classmate, subspace travel technology is probably not mature yet, and it’s not as optimistic as we initially thought…”

Upon hearing this, Wei Hanwen took a deep breath, his brows furrowing: "Chengguang, what is the background of your classmate's family?"

“His family is of noble birth, but I don’t know the specifics, however…” Wei Chengguang hinted, then didn’t continue.

However, this only made Wei Hanwen more convinced. After all, Jiangling was the most important city in the entire south and the secondary capital of the Great Zhao Dynasty in terms of law. A large number of nobles lived there, including many who had connections to the highest levels.

Moreover, if this is the case, it would explain why the deep space concept stocks have been falling sharply recently. After all, how could they fall to a low point for the year for no reason?

The fact that Wei Chengguang was so secretive actually increased the credibility of the news. After all, if the news were true, it would be a secret known only to a small number of people and wouldn't spread everywhere.

Wei Hanwen knew his own family situation well. Although his business seemed quite glamorous and he had a lot of money, compared to those real powerful and wealthy people, he was nothing.