Gao Wu Da Qin: You don't want your secret to be known, do you?

Chapter 50 Totem

As Qin Feng watched Gai Nie about to leave, he suddenly remembered the golden-scaled egg!

My senior brother has been working in the palace for many years and is a veteran disciple of the Hundred Schools of Thought. He must be very knowledgeable and should be able to tell the origin of that thing!

Qin Feng hurriedly asked, "By the way, senior brother, do you recognize this thing?"

Qin Feng took out a golden egg from his pocket and handed it to Gai Nie.

Gai Nie glanced back, his gaze extremely casual, but then his unrestrained eyes suddenly widened, his pupils dilating several times over, staring intently at the golden egg in Qin Feng's hand. At that moment, Gai Nie's sword emitted a soft sword hum.

This was the first time Qin Feng had heard the sound of a sword ringing out. Yuan Hong's sword ringing was very clear and crisp, like the sound of a crane or a lark, melodious and gentle yet full of warning.

Gai Nie took a full ten breaths before he looked away from the golden egg, then stared intently at Qin Feng, seemingly worried that Qin Feng would pull out another big treasure from his pocket.

Qin Feng noticed his senior brother's surprise. He knew that his senior brother had been accompanying King Ying Zheng of Qin for many years and had seen all kinds of rare treasures. Any item that could make his senior brother so surprised must be extraordinary.

Qin Feng just couldn't understand why, if it really wasn't an ordinary item, they would send those good-for-nothings like Brother Chen to deliver it? Why not send a few immortals instead?

After a long pause, Gai Nie slowly exhaled and asked, word by word, "Where did you get this?"

Qin Feng said, "I found it."

Gai Nie stared at Qin Feng. "Tell the truth!"

Qin Feng said sincerely, "I really found it. That day, I took the National Civil Service Exam Flying Car to Chang'an. Then I went to the toilet. That old flying car was poorly made. Just after I finished, the toilet panel suddenly exploded and broke, which startled me. I quickly jumped out of the men's toilet and then heard that some temporary workers who were working in the women's toilet had fallen down. There was a box in the package left by those temporary workers. I figured no one would notice, so I picked it up."

Gai Nie stared at Qin Feng. "Keep talking! Don't stop! What happens after you get the box?"

Qin Feng said, "After I got the box, I wondered what this thing was! I tried to pry the box open, but I couldn't. I even used hydraulic shears, but I still couldn't open it. Then one time I was humming a song, and I sing really well, and then the box opened."

Upon hearing this, Gai Nie sighed deeply, "Bo Ya and Zi Qi were right. Music, music is the only language that connects us to heaven and earth, the only language that can unlock this power!"

"It's like an ancient ritual, with songs and dances!"

"I should have realized this sooner! Music, music is the key to awakening them!"

"You actually found a way to open the box that nobody in the world knew!"

"Some people have held onto it for millions of years, yet they cannot find the way to open the box, nor even see it! Others have held onto it for only three days, and it has already recognized its owner! Is this fate?"

Qin Feng was stunned for a moment. "Singing is the key to activation! Did I just stumble upon this by sheer luck?"

Gai Nie immediately turned around and said, "Continue! What happened after the box was opened?"

Qin Feng said, "After the box was opened, my hand was cut, and then a handful of golden mist swallowed my blood. It even wanted to drink my blood, but how could I let it drink it! So I threw it away!"

Gai Nie asked, "And then? Did you have any close contact with it?"

Qin Feng thought for a moment, "Last night when I was taking a shower, I couldn't find any soap, so I used this as soap to scrub my body. And I must say, after using this thing to scrub my body, my skin even became whiter! It practically rubbed off all the dead skin on my body. Wait, what's with that expression, Senior Brother? I feel like you want to punch me..."

Gai Nie's face was extremely serious at this moment. His right fist was clenched, and the veins on the back of his hand were bulging. He couldn't hold back any longer, especially when he heard Qin Feng praise its effectiveness!

boom!

Gai Nie unleashed a punch!

Facing them, the river, over 300 meters wide, suddenly surged skyward, sending hundreds of large silver carp soaring into the air. A terrifying ravine, tens of meters deep, was clearly visible on the riverbed and at the bottom!

Qin Feng gasped, his whole body went numb. My God! Gai Nie's casual, angry punch could sever a river!

If this kind of destructive power were to fall on a person, wouldn't they instantly turn into fragments of a hero?

After that punch, Qin Feng's attitude towards Gai Nie changed abruptly. He became respectful and obedient, standing there like a well-behaved child. "Senior brother, please calm down. 👌🐲 ➅❾𝔰卄ùЖ.匚𝕆爪😳☯"

Gai Nie calmed down and then looked at the obedient Qin Feng in front of him, "I am not your senior brother, and I will not have you as my junior brother from now on."

Qin Feng panicked, "Senior brother, I know I was wrong, I won't use it to scrub my body anymore."

Gai Nie said sternly, "Don't mention the bathhouse incident again! From now on, you are my senior brother, no, you are my junior uncle! Junior uncle!"

Qin Feng said, "Senior brother, I still don't quite understand what this thing is!"

Gai Nie paced back and forth, his voice calm, "This isn't called a thing; its proper name is a totem."

Qin Feng was taken aback. "A totem? Is it a mythical beast?"

To Qin Feng's surprise, Gai Nie directly said, "Compared to it, even divine beasts are nothing but clay chickens and earthen dogs! You're insulting it!"

Qin Feng shut up. Is it really that serious that it needs to be blown out of proportion?

Gai Nie then added, "This beast is called Totem, symbolizing auspicious fortune and capable of suppressing the fate of a sect!"

Qin Feng then asked, "Have totems ever existed in history?"

Gai Nie said, "There are many totems in history. The earliest totems can be traced back to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period. At that time, a totem could protect an entire tribe or a clan!"

"Later, as the human population increased, the totems could no longer protect so many people, so they were created to protect certain groups of people! For example, West Kunlun, East King Mountain, and the Ancient Heavenly Court!"

"Later, the Wu Geng Rebellion broke out, the last human king's bloodline was severed, and the ancestral dragon vein completely collapsed. Most of the totems nested on the ancestral dragon vein!"

"The nest collapsed, and in an instant, the totems were almost wiped out!"

"But as time passed, some powerful totem species miraculously survived this wave of continental collapse and lived into the new cosmic era!"

"In the new cosmic era, the number of humans and the prosperity of nations are beyond imagination, far exceeding the supercontinental era. At this time, totems can no longer protect a tribe or a nation as they did back then; at most, they can only protect a sect!"

"However, finding the totem became a problem. Later, someone discovered that the key to finding the totem was not the method, but the person! Only when people of the same sex are attracted to each other can the totem be found."

"Because totems have lived on the ancestral dragon vein for generations, they are naturally very sensitive to destiny. However, they themselves do not generate destiny; at most, they can only protect destiny from dissipation!"

"The growth of a totem also requires it to find a powerful person with strong destiny and rely on the powerful destiny of its master in order to grow to its peak."

"Therefore, if a person with extraordinary fortune, boundless destiny, and lofty aspirations appears, the totem will appear on its own initiative, accompanying them, suppressing their destiny, protecting their sect, preventing their destiny from flowing out, and enabling the practitioner to attain enlightenment while also attaining enlightenment themselves."

"Later, sages and virtuous people all set an example, which truly attracted the totem!"

Qin Feng asked curiously, "Senior brother, are there any specific examples?"

"Of course," Gai Nie said, pacing back and forth. "According to the records of Guiguzi, Laozi, the Taoist, and Confucius, the Confucian, were playing chess together atop Yunshan Mountain when the totem Snow Feather Swan appeared. Later, Laozi gave this swan to Confucius to suppress the destiny of the Jixia Academy, as a token of Confucius's gratitude for helping Laozi capture the totem Green Ox for the first time!"

"Further on, Zhuangzi dreamt he transformed into a butterfly and roamed freely. He encountered the Kunpeng and later obtained the Kunpeng totem. Zhuangzi was never seen again in the human world."

"When Huizi heard that Zhuangzi had encountered the Kunpeng and was traveling freely, he met a koi carp on a beam, which passed through the Dragon Gate and disappeared without a trace."

"Gongsun Long, the patriarch of the famous family, used the phrase 'White Horse is not a Horse' to attract a totem dragon horse, and he truly ascended to heaven!"

"Mo Di, the first leader of the Mohist school, was a chivalrous man. He once attracted a black phoenix to accompany him day and night. Every time the sun was scorching, the black phoenix would appear and use its wings to shield Mo Di from the sunlight. Later, Mo Di comprehended the Dao, founded the Mohist school, and rode the black phoenix to escape."

"Donghuang Taiyi of the Yin-Yang School was fortunate enough to encounter the totem, the Three-Legged Golden Crow. Protected by the totem, the school prospered. This Three-Legged Golden Crow, capable of rebirth from fire, is immortal and has long protected the Yin-Yang School. This has endowed the Yin-Yang School with many abilities that other schools of thought lacked, such as prophecy and divination! It should be noted that divination originated with Taoism! However, Taoism is now far surpassed by the Yin-Yang School in divination techniques!"

Qin Feng couldn't help but interrupt, "Senior brother, since so many ancestors have obtained totems, why doesn't our Ghost Valley have a single one?"

Gai Nie turned his head to the side, "The disciples of Guigu are busy with internal strife and have no time to search for totems."

Qin Feng almost spat out a mouthful of blood. The disciples of Guigu were busy with internal strife, so their ancestors rode away gracefully on totems, while our sect was busy fighting to the death among its own people every day.

Come to think of it, Su Qin wanted to destroy the Qin state, Zhang Yi saved the Qin state, Pang Juan cut off Sun Bin's leg, and Sun Bin took Pang Juan's life!

The entire history of Guigu is practically a brilliant history of internal strife!

Gai Nie slowed his tone, "So, now you understand what kind of thing you've been raising, right?"

Qin Feng said, "What I'm raising is a beast of destiny that can suppress the fate of the sect and ensure its long-term survival!"

Gai Nie said, "To put it simply, to put it bluntly, you've raised the ancestor of the Ghost Valley School of Strategists!"

Qin Feng stiffly replied, "No wonder, when I said I'd use the golden egg to scrub my back, you almost chopped me to pieces, Senior Brother. It was indeed very offensive; using an ancestor to scrub one's back is rather undignified!"

"Enough!" Gai Nie interrupted Qin Feng. "Don't bring up that shameful thing about scrubbing people in the bathhouse again! You're lucky you ran into me. If you had run into Master, do you believe I would have hung you on the barren cliff of Ghost Valley and left you to starve for three months!"

Qin Feng hurriedly said, "Senior Brother is absolutely right. This thing is of great importance, not only to my fate, but also to the fate of Ghost Valley. Whether Ghost Valley can survive for long depends entirely on this beast. But, how do we raise this thing?"

Gai Nie looked at the golden egg and said, "It's really hard to say how to raise this beast. The totems in the Guiguzi records are basically all adults, or at the very least, they can understand human speech and clearly express what they want to eat. Yours is completely still in its shell, which is really difficult. How did you feed it before?"

Qin Feng said awkwardly, "I can feel its heart pounding every day, as if urging me to feed it. Its favorite food is my blood, but a person's body is limited. Where am I going to get that much blood for it to drink? If this continues, I don't know if it will grow up or not, but I will definitely be drunk dry."

Gai Nie thought for a moment and said, "How about this, you feed it with your blood first, and don't let it die. I'll go back and write a letter to ask my master how to raise this thing."

Qin Feng nodded, "That's the only way! I'll have to trouble you, Senior Brother."

"We're all brothers! Let's not talk like strangers," Gai Nie said. "Master has always been worried that Ghost Valley might disappear, especially now that the empire is at its peak and the six kingdoms are blocking it. The great era of contention is just around the corner, and we don't know how many aristocratic families and sects will be reduced to dust in this catastrophe! Apart from those few sects that still worship their totems, no one is sure! This has caused all the sects to be walking on thin ice, being very cautious and not daring to compete for supremacy. On the contrary, it has benefited those Confucian, Legalist, Yin-Yang, Mohist, and Logician schools that have totems."

"Now that the Martial Arts Alliance has its own totem, as long as the totem remains, the Martial Arts Alliance will not perish. Under the binding of destiny, we, the disciples of the Martial Arts Alliance, will not always meet a tragic end! We will also have a way out granted by heaven! A dignified ending!"

Qin Feng now fully understands that the totem in his hand is no ordinary divine beast; it is the most precious treasure of a sect!

As long as it lives on, as long as it stands, our sect's destiny will endure, and we will not be eliminated by fate!

And as its owner, wouldn't my words carry a lot of weight in the sect?

and many more!

Qin Feng quickly realized that even with himself, the Zongheng Sect only had four people, enough for one mahjong game. If his master got old and they couldn't even get a mahjong set, they would have to play Dou Dizhu (a card game).

Status and identity may be important in other sects, but in the Zongheng Sect, they are practically meaningless.

There are only two of them, and they're both incredibly insightful. Besides them, there's nobody else. Who are you trying to impress with your status and identity? Having no audience is the most fatal flaw!

Qin Feng shushed him, "Senior brother, it's nothing, I'll head out. It's almost midnight, and I still need to buy exam materials and clothes, and go through the registration process tomorrow."

Gai Nie glanced longingly at the golden egg in Qin Feng's hand. "Totems are very difficult to raise. When Confucius captured the swan, he went through great lengths to barely get it to land at the Jixia Academy. You must treat this totem well and not mistreat it. If it becomes depressed, your master, me, and Wei Zhuang will never let you off the hook!"

Qin Feng said, "Definitely, definitely! I'll treat it like a revered ancestor when I get back! I promise I'll respect it even more than I respect my master!"

Gai Nie nodded, "Alright, let's call it a day."

Qin Feng greeted him, "Then I'll be going now, Senior Brother!"

"Wait!" Gai Nie cautioned, "If you encounter the First Sage during the martial arts exam, don't kill him! That old man has been holding back for over a thousand years, only growing seventeen years older—that's the Confucian school's ultimate move! If you kill him, it'll cause a huge problem!"

Qin Feng was taken aback. "Wait, senior brother, are you sure you didn't instruct the wrong person? Can I really defeat that old monster?"

Gai Nie pointed at the golden egg in Qin Feng's hand, "You have it now, how could you possibly lose to that old monster? Let me tell you this: with it in your hands, the heavens are on your side. Your opponent will have all sorts of negative statuses and their luck will be maxed out, while you'll have all your statuses pushed to the limit, your luck will explode! How could you possibly lose? Take today, for example, when that demon Nie Qing challenged you to a duel, and I ended up running into him. Do you really think that was just good luck? It was your ancestors showing their divine intervention!"

"I advise you to go back and enshrine it, and burn incense and pray to it three times a day. Praying to it is much better than worshipping your ancestors!"

Qin Feng said awkwardly, "That's true. Is there anything else you'd like to tell me, Senior Brother?"

Gai Nie looked at the golden-scaled egg, "The Yin-Yang School's list of fifty-five people, including you, is actually a form of protection for you! Once you're on the list, an unwritten rule is formed among the list members: when you meet someone, you should stop when you're at a disadvantage and never kill them! You have an unusually strong desire to kill. I advise you not to go after those fifty-five people on the list. It's easy to cause trouble. After all, their totems are already adults, while yours hasn't even hatched yet."

Qin Feng nodded, "Understood! I will go easy on you."

At this moment, the first light of dawn appeared in the east. Gai Nie gave the golden-scaled egg one last, reluctant stroke, then turned and said, "The golden-scaled egg can sense danger. If you encounter danger, run immediately! If anything happens to the golden-scaled egg, Master will kill me!"

Qin Feng replied, "Understood, understood."

Gai Nie, still worried, said, "Why don't you come stay at my place?"

"Well—" Qin Feng said awkwardly, "Next time, my teacher is fine. Senior brother, you're too dazzling. Following you would be much more dangerous."

"That's enough!" Gai Nie flicked his sleeve. "Keep in touch."

Gai Nie turned around and disappeared gracefully.

Qin Feng tucked his ancestor into his robes and headed towards Slaughtering Ox Lane.

(End of this chapter)