Chapter 173 (1/2)
Ning Que Looked at the half cup of cold tea, pondering what the master had said. And he felt a sense of peacefulness.
Master Yan Se slightly smiled and raised his skinny arm to draw simple lines in the air.
Then, the air in this pavilion suddenly became drier. A faint flame magically showed up in front of Ning Que, and disappeared in the next minute. Ning Que was so scared that he almost jumped from ground.
Master Yan Se smiled and said,”Your friend compared the Snow Mountain and Ocean of Qi into a string of a musical instrument, it was a good saying. The lines of Fu also could be regarded as strings of the instrument which were used to play songs that could be understood by the Heaven and Earth, yet I still think it would be better to compare it into an article, for Fu not only lets the Heave and Earth appreciate the beauty of melody but also clearly expresses ideas and seek tiny differences between activity and inertia. ”
After this, he raised his right hand again and used his index finger to draw six lines in the air.
Ning Que felt moist generated from master's finger, the moist was brus.h.i.+ng his face and making a slight noise. He reached out to touch it without realization, finding that his face was wet, as if being washed just now.
”Using different lines and different Psyche Power, you can write a different article which can express different ideas and have different effect.”Looking at Ning Que who kept touching his own face like a girl crazy, master Yan Se said with a smile, ”Teaching you Talisman Taoism is like teaching you how to write an article.”
”How to write an article? After you have learnt cla.s.sics and sensed Qi of Heaven and Earth, how to finish your last stroke to let the Qi of Heaven and Earth know what you are thinking? There is no trick in the last step, or we can say that we must have a trick. Then, what does a trick mean?” ”Well, it refers to talent. If you can write, then you write, otherwise even you soak yourself in that Ink Lake day and night, you still can't write.”
Looking at Ning Que, master Yan Se continued to say, ”The last thing needed when studying Talisman Taoism is talent. Talent is the most precious gift that Haotian gives to us, only few people are lucky enough to have it, you are one of them.”
”This... is way too hard.”
Ning Que felt puzzled. He saw magic things happen, yet couldn't figure out how these things happen. The master had talked so much, but in the end he still talked about the metaphysics. What he had said was not useful at all. Stuff like talent couldn't be explained well, but then how could people use this inexplainable talent to finish the last stroke of a Chinese character?
”If studying Talisman Taoism depends on talent, the first man who found Talisman Taoism in the world saw the marks of Fu lines and copied them without realization, and then wrote the first Fu. But according to your idea that Talisman Taoism can not be inherited, so how could he...”
Ning Que weighed his words before continuing to say, ”Pa.s.s this civilization?”
Master Yan Se ruminated for a while before he answered, ”Talisman Taoism can not be inherited, yet the spirit of it could. If Chinese characters can record ideas, it surely can record history then. It may be an coincident for that Talisman Master to find out how to write the first Fu.”
”Maybe tens of thousands of years ago, that Talisman Master walked to a cliff. After watching the cracks, he understood something, and then he concentrated all his power on the sword hanging on his waist, waved it toward that cliff, and put his power in it.”
”It was an coincidence to write the first Fu, but when this Grand Cultivator found the secrets hiding behind these sword scratches, he definitely would make another try. If he succeeded again, the second Fu would no longer be an coincidence, but a natural object.”
Ning Que doubted and said, ”Or may be that cultivator couldn't write the second Fu the rest of his life.”
Master Yan Se looked at him and said, ”If the first cultivator failed, there would come the second cultivator, the third one, and then the fourth one. Time is endless, cultivators are countless. They would continue to explore the world, in that situation, there must be a cultivator being succeed. There is no doubt that this kind of thing will happen.”
Ning Que nodded his head.
Master Yan Se said,”It is the same for Talisman Taoism. Talisman Taoism can't be inherited, but its spirit can. Before that cultivator died, he must tell his students. So his students would try. Maybe he succeeded, maybe he failed, or maybe this sect would disapper. But I believe that a few years later, there must be another cultivator who found the secrets of Talisman Taoism, and then told it to his students. As a result, there must be a sect being succeeded and inherited to the present.”
Lifting up his head, Ning Que said with a deep feeling, ”Only a few cultivators could succeed. We will never know how many cultivators' techniques didn't pa.s.s down.”
”This is more like climbing a high mountain which you could never reach its top. Some people had to stop at the foot of the mountain, some people reached the half of the mountain, yet they were blown off by wind. Now it's the heyday of Talisman Taoism development. However, if you see it in a broader perspective, you will find that this mountain is infinitely high.”
Master Yan Se looked at him and let out a sigh, ”The birth of Talisman Taoism is very difficult, yet the development of Talisman Taoism is more difficult than that. That's why when I found that you have a gift for Talisman Taoism, I were that thrilled. Since you are so lucky to get this talent, you must cherish it, not only for yourself, but also for Talisman Taoism itself.”
Through these words Ning Que felt endless lonely and pathetic, so he slightly stiffened his body, as if seeing scenes happened years ago.
In ancient times, there was a wizard wearing furs and living in a tribe. Once when he finished presiding over a sacrificial ceremony, he came into a cliff cave to have a rest. While singing a mysterious song, he picked up a stone to paint on the wall.
He intended to draw that beautiful and red flame, yet unexpectedly, that painting flamed up when he only finished half of it.
The wizard was too scared to say a word. He knelt down, kowtowing to it. His body covered by fur quivered with fear. People in the tribe rushed into the cave as soon as they heard the screams of the wizard, and then they also saw that burning painting and all knelt down, crying, screaming and regarding it as an evil.
As the most wise man in the tribe, the wizard gradually calmed down and drove all the other people out of the cave. Seeing the fire gradually extinguished, he stared at the black marks and hesitated for a long time before touching it, and then he was inspired and turned around to find that red stone, trembling repainting that picture on the wall again.
From that day on, the wizard could no longer draw burning painting anymore, yet he had become the most greatest wizard in the tribe.
Countless people died during the war between the Central Plains and the Wilderness. Blood seeped into the black earth, soaking gra.s.s and mud like chili sauce. A cultivator from Min Mountain squatted on the ground in silence, looking at his brother's dead body and holding a branch without knowing where it came from. And he drew on the ground without realization.
Not far from him, the entire maroon Wilderness seemed live. The ground constantly waved and countless earthworms and insects were frightened by it and fled everywhere, as if there was a mutated giant earthworm under the ground.
A student read the original Fu texts left by his teacher and kept copying them on yellow papers. He wrote, from a lad to a middle-aged man and then to an old man. These yellow papers stock up in his room. Spider's web threaded beams, but he never stopped.
A person sat on the towering summit of Zhongli Mountain, he was holding a drawing board, and all pigments were around him. Looking at the mountain and the flowing clouds, he drew paintings from sunrise to sunset, and then to another sunrise. He drew paintings from winter to spring, and then to summer. He never stopped.
From ancient times to the present, those people who were lucky enough to, or accidentally to understand the true meaning of Talisman Taoism. And those students who wanted to grasp Talisman Taoism, they kept mimicking the lines of Heaven and Earth, they racked their brains to write an article, they run out of papers and writing brushes, they draw every single mountain and every single river, and all inks they had used could even black pool water.
No matter being succeeded or failed, they never stopped trying with all effort. Just because of their persistence and trying, the most mysterious gift of Haotian was not taken back and was narrowly not inherited to the present.
”Every Talisman Master shall shoulder the responsibility to pa.s.s down what they have grasped or we can say that it is an irresistible responsibility. Just because previous virtuous masters shouldered their responsibility, and tried their best effort, the Talisman Taoism shall exist in the world.”
Looking at Ning Que who was lowering his head, master Yan Se said in a serious tone, ”Finding a student like you already satisfied my entire life. However, it is sad that, as we said the earlier time, Talisman Taoism can only be inherited from its spirit not its techniques, so whether Talisman Taoism spirit can be pa.s.sed down or not at my generation, it's all up to you.”
Ning Que bowed to show his respect and replied, ”I will try my best not to disappoint you.”
”Disappoint? What is disappointment? If I just want you to inherit Talisman Taoism, and then I believe you will not let me down for I have a pair of Talisman eyes and I know it is not difficult for you.”
”But my hope is more than that. I have a kind of feeling that there is a certain force which limits the inheritance of Talisman Taoism. You should know that none of Divine Talisman Master in the world, including me, could really see through Talisman Taoism. If we all unable to see it through, we naturally could not pa.s.s down the essence part, which is also the easiest part of Talisman Taoism.”
”I am too old to see it through. If you have a chance to achieve it in the future, I believe it will be easier to pa.s.s Talisman Taoism down. At that time, you can express ideas with Fu and control mountains and rivers by writing Fu... It may sound like a magic, but I strongly believe that one day all these can come true and must be realized by Talisman Taoism”
Master Yan Se peacefully said to him, ”Ning Que, I hope you can be such a person.”
The more you expect, the more disappointed you will feel. If Ning Que didn't want to disappoint master Yan Se, he had no choice but to shoulder the great expectation. Ning Que looked faintly into the distance, feeling like that two mountains were loaded on his shoulders.
”Can I be such a person?”
”You have to be such a person.”
Seeing master's old and sad face, Ning Que suddenly opened his mouth and said, ”Master, please teach me the most basic knowledge.”
Looking into Ning Que's eyes for a long time, master Yan Se revealed a smile on his wrinkly face, comforted him and said to him in a soft voice, ”A thousand journey is started by taking the first step. I wish you good luck.”
”How to draw Fu lines?”
”First, you need to sense Qi of Heaven and Earth, the more delicate, the better. Then, you draw the flowing trace of Qi of Heaven and Earth based on what you have seen.”
”If I can't see it, how can I draw it?”
”Cultivators never see the world through eyes.”
”Through their feeling?”
”Exactly. Follow your feelings to draw it.”
”Can I draw it like a blind?”
”If so you have to stab your eyes first.”
Glancing at Ning Que in a mad mood, master Yan Se reached out a few books and throw them to Ning Que.
Ning Que was almost hit to death by these books.
For what he caught was not a few books, but dozens of them. Besides, each book was thick, it seemed that if put these books together they would be heavier than Chen Pipi. Ning Que even didn't notice when the master moved these books here from the carriage.
Ning Que casually picked one up and opened it, and then he saw those meandering lines on the first page, and realized that these lines were not characters, even not paintings because they looked so ugly. Ning Que blankly asked, ”These... are Fu lines?”
”Yes. These are Fu lines that I have collected my entire life, most of them are Taoist Fu.”
Master Yan se poured himself a cup of tea to wet his throat, and then continued to say, ”These are the crystallization of the previous virtuous masters'wisdom. When you observe the trace of Heave and Earth in the later days, do not forget to refer to those Fu lines.”
”I have said that these are articles that only belonged to the Talisman Masters from earlier generations who wrote them in their own characters. Even though you are good at coping and can recite all the articles, the reader still could not understand it.”