382 Three Books II (1/2)
”The no-boundary spirit of the Academy?”
Looking at this rumpled book in his hands, Ning Que remembered that on the day last spring when the Second floor of the Academy was opened, when he used all of his strength to reach the wooden door down the mountain, he saw the four words ”A Gentleman Knows No-boundaries” inscribed on the rock. Thinking about that, he slightly frowned and fell into a long period of thinking.
Days before that, he had heard from Second Brother that the four words Prince Long Qing saw at that moment were ”A Gentleman Doesn't Fight”, which was actually the note made by the Headmaster of the Academy for him. Therefore, the four words of ”A Gentleman Knows No-boundaries” were undoubtedly left by the Headmaster of the Academy for him, or perhaps, the warning for his life.
What did those four words inscribed on the rock mean? What was the relationship between the ”A Gentleman Knows No-boundaries” and this old book? Did the Headmaster already know in advance that he needed to learn the no-boundary spirit of the Academy?
Ning Que looked out of the cave and asked, ”How should I solve the problems in this book if there are any?”
Chen Pipi said, ”I will come up the mountain every ten days, so if you have any questions about this book...”
Before he finished the rest of his words, Ning Que had already realized that these were classes that had been arranged by the Headmaster just like Third Sister Yu Lian had done before. He said while shaking his head, ”Dream on, you are not Third Sister. You have to come up the mountain every day, otherwise, I'm afraid that Sangsang and I will be bored to death.”
Chen Pipi mocked him, ”Then why don't you beg me? Where is your previous terrible attitude? What else can you do to me if I leave right now?”
Ning Que said, ”Just get out of here.”
Chen Pipi instantly turned and started to go down from the cliff platform.
Suddenly, he stopped and looked back at Ning Que for a long silent moment.
Ning Que looked at him with a slightly odd expression.
Chen Pipi said, ”I heard that the teacher will give you three books to learn about. If you still cannot get out when you finish them, you might lose all the chances in your entire life to get out.”
Ning Que slightly frowned and asked, ”What is the third book?”
Chen Pipi shook his head and said, ”No one knows.”
Ning Que remained silent for a while before he suddenly smiled and said, ”If it is confirmed that I can't get out of this mountain for my entire life, please find a spoon for me.”
Chen Pipi asked with slight surprise, ”For what?”
Ning Que pointed to the deep dark inside of the cliff cave behind him and said, ”I will use it to dig out a long tunnel and get back to the world.”
Chen Pipi could not help doubting his intelligence and said with empathy, ”Don't feel so pressured.”
Ning Que knew that Chen Pipi was unable to understand what he really meant, but it did not matter, he knew it himself. Then he started reading that book.
Chen Pipi sighed slightly, leaving the plateau without saying anything.
...
...
The Tao is invisible while objects are all tangible.
Objects, as mentioned, referred to all the things without boundaries.
People who knew the Tao would not set boundaries for themselves, and also did not care about the specific forms.
Gentlemen who did not have boundaries would not be stubborn about the established rules.
The no-boundary was a condescending attitude toward rules.
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Opening the old book that had no words on the cover, Ning Que was immediately attracted by its contents and could not help continuing to read.
Other than eating and sleeping, he spent most of the following 24 hours reading and thinking. If he began to get bored with one book or his thoughts arrived at a standstill, he would read another book. In this way, time passed as he flipped through the books.
Sangsang cooked, cleaned, and chatted with him when he got bored. After working up the courage to come into the cliff cave once again, Sangsang sat beside him quietly and sewed the soles of shoes.
No matter in which ways these two books would help Ning Que solve those problems and free him from his imprisonment, he had learned a lot from the knowledge and wisdom of the ancient sages in those books.
The book of the Origin on Primordial Qi of Nature allowed him to learn about this brand new assumption of the world for the first time, and he understood more new ideas in the following several sections.
The so-called aura of the world was exactly an invisible particle that existed in nature. It was also called the Qi of Heaven and Earth by cultivators. According to this book, all of the Qi of Heaven and Earth in this world originated from the sun, only a little of which was from the depths of the earth.
These auras that had the same origin started to manifest different features due to the different objects that they coexisted with and the environmental pollution over time.
For example, the Qi of Heaven and Earth in wood was totally different from that in rocks. Such differences were too subtle to be found by general cultivators.
Ning Que remembered the feeling when he first met the Stone Array Tactics before the Front Gate of the Devil's Doctrine by Daming Lake. He found that the explanation in the book made sense even though it was different from what Master Yan Se had said earlier.
After a while, he took out several Fu papers and cast, using his Psyche Power to carefully sense the slight differences between the fire and the mist in front of him, and then wrote down notes on the paper.
After lunch, he put the empty bowls aside and started casting again. He usually wrote talisman for fun when he was in the Old Brush Pen Shop and, although their power was not strong enough, he had saved a great many Fu papers that were enough for such an experiment.