Chapter 101 (1/2)
The tall and thin Taoist dipped his finger in wine and continued to write on the rosewood table, and soon all the twenty-nine characters on the paper were copied. He sucked his finger and put his hands down. He then, lowered his body to take a closer look at the table, continuing to scan over those pieces of paper in the account book carefully.
During his scrutiny, his eyebrows became more tightly frowned, and he shook his head more and more frequently with even more confusion, mumbling, ”What style is this? I have never encountered it before. There are no fluctuations of primordial Qi, but why are those hidden in the strokes so vigorous? Obviously, those strokes are messy and disordered, but when tracing them with concentration, why I feel tightened in my mind?”
Then he straightened up and paced half a circle in the house. Soon after he quickened to the rosewood table and continued to examine those characters on the paper, still with his eyebrows tightened. Then he waved his head and constantly said, ”Blocked! Blocked! Not blocked? No!”
No matter how serious the disputes and conflicts were among the three main cultivation factions and among countries, n.o.body had the courage to show a slight disrespect to Divine Talisman Masters, because cultivators were rare, yet Divine Talisman Masters were hardly ever seen. The Divine Talisman Masters living at the border of the earthy world and the cultivation could bring gusts and storms by the rise of their pen and startle the world when a pen set. So they were of crucial importance to cultivation as well as warfare, who were almost equal to non-renewable resources thus worthy of the highest respect.
The most powerful country in the world contemporarily, was the Tang Empire, yet it only owned Divine Talisman Masters of no more than ten, most of whom had abandoned the mortal world to seclude in the Academy or wooded mountains to pursue Taoism, devoting the rest of their lives to exploring the secret in the law of nature, and thus leaving merely a few in the earthly world. Among the four Divine Talisman Masters from the South School of Haotian Taoism, two were envoys designated to Chang'an by the West-Hill Divine Palace to demonstrate its power and influence and were not permanent residents in Chang'an. In this sense, there were just two Divine Talisman Masters from the South School of Haotian Taoism.
This tall and thin Taoist visiting the House of Red Sleeves tonight was one of the two.
He was called Yan Se, who was the Senior Brother of Li Qingfeng, the Master of Tang Empire, and Minister of Offerings in the South School of Haotian Taoism. He preferred spirits, beauty and wonderful calligraphy, and in terms of talisman art, he had already been one of the top figures. Under the torrents of Spring rain that night, the talisman he drew out of rainwater in the alley had greatly threatened w.a.n.g Jinglue, the inborn talent in cultivation who was known as invincible among those under Knowing Destiny State. It was indeed marvelous.
Besides various Martial Arts of Talisman, what Divine Talisman Masters were most commended for was their ingenious state and writing skill on pieces of paper. It was said that a great calligrapher or painter would not become a Divine Talisman Master without the potential for cultivation, while all Divine Talisman Masters were famous calligraphers or painters crowned with eternal glory.
Yan Se was a Divine Talisman Master indulging in brothels, however, he could be a top master in calligraphy anytime he wanted. But, such a big shot like him shouldn't have been attracted by messy scripts on an accounting paper, and even still couldn't find a solution after racking his brains, and thus repeatedly claimed, ”blocked”. Those calligraphers and powerful cultivation pract.i.tioners would've been shocked to be speechless if they were on the spot. What's more, they would be curious about Ning Que, whose calligraphy had puzzled a Divine Talisman Master --What on earth kind of man was he?
A messy script with twenty-nine words should put Yan Se, the great Divine Talisman Master in confusion. It was not because Ning Que was capable, but because his mental state perfectly corresponded to his style of writing at that point for various reasons.
He was somewhat enlightened by those books in the old library, that was, to remember the form and neglect the meaning. Driven by such exultance, he went to the brothel with his cla.s.smates to drink like a fish. Under a drunken state, he randomly picked up the brush pen and composed that hasty calligraphy, during which the inspirations he got had helped him to dispel all strict restrictions of writing, and even impelled him to break the rules of stokes subconsciously in a dead drunk. Twisting plum blossoms and pus.h.i.+ng down the grape trellis, he was driven by the tipsy feeling to frantically splash the ink for a sprawling and unclear result.
Unexpectedly, such a deliberation actually opened a new path, which coincidentally conjoined to the trick of cultivation in an unwieldy manner. A mere calligrapher might not necessarily feel it special, however, in the eyes of a Divine Talisman Master, it had poked the tickle, the kind that remained unstirred for sixty years and would itch to the deepest of his bone once triggered!
As for the comment Yan Se had given to the calligraphy, it was totally correct because Ning Que was inborn blocked. He was obstructed by rules of cultivation and all his acupoints in Snow Mountain and Ocean of Qi remained blocked. At present, he just planned to find a bending and detouring path to reach the top, but unfortunately boulders also existed at the end of the path, then where was the way?
The meaning between lines referred to the fact that each stroke in the middle and the one thereafter ill.u.s.trated the mental state and the thought of the writer on the spot. Every single word in this messy script was illogical, which was because the real meaning was sunken in fuzzy ink and blurred. However, the copy from the Divine Talisman Master Yan Se had managed to release the original feeling imprisoned in the strokes no matter how powerful the shackle was. That feeling had permeated into the rosewood through wine and suffused the House of Red Sleeves with the flavor of wine...
On top of wine, Ning Que wrote down those words to Sangsang. Apparently, he just told her he would stay in the House of Red Sleeves the night, yet his true feeling disclosed only after all the hidden meanings diffused. Even he himself was unaware of this true feeling, or perhaps he was unwilling to admit it.
The courtyard in the west grew some plants of plum, where the girl Lu Xue was holding her vertical bamboo flute, sunk in silence. Sorrow crawled over her delicate face, who was longing for the vigorous Spring in her southern hometown at the sight of those faded plums in the corner.
And the courtyard in the east grew some cl.u.s.ters of bamboo, where the girl Dewdrop was gazing blankly at the twinkling stars reflected in the basin. Her crystal tears flowed down her plump and smooth face like a pearl, which plopped into the basin with a soft sound.