What harm is there in the couplets not bowing to me?

The Broken Jade Waterfall still cascades down like pearls, its waters gushing forth with a thunderous roar.

Although it was still dark and the air was chilly near the waterfall, there were already many people cultivating on the nearby rocks, in open spaces, or in the forest.

Amidst the mountain breeze, the sounds of swords clashing and zithers echoed. Yan Huanyue could faintly hear Tan Guiyi conversing with someone, discussing swordsmanship.

"Fellow Daoist Gu, is this the move you just used?"

Gu Yuxiao's voice always carried a leisurely tone.

"Hmm, the appearance is somewhat similar... Fellow Daoist Tan, you started your sword technique a moment too early. Try changing the order of 'Surging Waves' and 'Mountain Splitting,' and when you advance, change the order of the 'Qian' and 'Li' positions. Remember to step steadily and don't rush."

"good."

In an instant, a burst of sword energy pierced through the deep forest behind them. Although it was isolated by the forest's restrictions, the residual energy still soared into the sky, tearing through the wind and shattering the moon, filled with murderous intent.

Tan Guiyi said with a grin, "Wow, Fellow Daoist Gu, your sword technique is really amazing. You're also so willing to guide others. You're so generous. I'm a straightforward person, unlike most young girls who can keep a hundred thoughts in their hearts. Don't take offense. From now on, I'll consider you a brother. If you need any help, just ask!"

Yu Zhao called out in a low voice, quite displeased: "Gui Yi... you are not allowed to be rude to Senior Brother Gu."

Tan Guiyi said angrily, "Yu Zhao, you're meddling too much! What business is it of yours what I do?"

Gu Yuxiao said with a smile, "It's just a small matter, fellow Daoist, you don't need to take it so seriously. You two chat first, I'll go to the Broken Jade Waterfall to practice my sword and see if Junior Brother Xue is slacking off again today."

Yan Huanyue walked silently along the path beside the deep forest, glancing up at the sky, which was already turning dark blue.

Then he walked to an inconspicuous blue stone tablet, took out a wooden plaque with his disciple's name engraved on it from his treasure pouch, waved it in front of the tablet, and stepped into it.

The secret realm within this stele was originally used to suppress all evil. After the demon race descended upon the world, the realm imprisoning evil was transformed by several generations of elders and became a whetstone for the sect's disciples.

Both the Shattered Jade Waterfall and the Blue Stone Stele are within the trial grounds.

Learning the Way is like building a high platform; every brick and tile must be laid firmly, and there is no room for perfunctory work.

The reason why sects are so desirable is that they can often provide their disciples with countless hidden resources.

The library, the mirror pavilion, and the training grounds offer opportunities for learning and practice, but some people simply refuse to learn, understand, or put their knowledge into practice.

A sect can often teach more than one technique.

The library houses millions of books, with no fewer than a thousand books in each category related to Taoism. The course of study for those who study Taoism is extensive, starting from the basics and gradually progressing. One must always be able to draw inferences from one instance to another and grasp the principles of change in various situations.

Yan Huanyue walked behind the blue stone tablet and stood in front of a shimmering, luminous stele.

She looked up at the seemingly endless towering monument that met the churning, dark clouds.

A biting north wind howls, thunder rumbles faintly, and the majestic Heavenly Stele stands tall and enduring here.

The Heavenly Stele lists the names of disciples who have entered this place for trials since the beginning of this year, ranked according to their skill in dealing with the monsters in each level of the secret realm.

As in many years, Han Shuangying's name remains at the top of the list.

Yan Huanyue's gaze continued downwards, to chapter 143, Yu Zhao.

Yu Zhao is young and joined the sect late. Since the beginning of the year, he has often been away from the sect and probably has not explored all the secret realms within the Heavenly Stele.

To be ranked this high among thousands of disciples at his age is already a testament to his extraordinary talent.

At the very end were names that were obviously chosen randomly; these were all outer disciples.

Originally, the Heavenly Stele was a place for inner disciples to hone their skills and practice. Later, to encourage outer disciples to also participate in the Heavenly Stele trials, a rule was introduced that outer disciples could choose to use an alias or their real name to be listed.

However, in reality, outer disciples, out of a desire to conceal their identities, mostly use aliases, which has become a common practice.

Yan Huanyue didn't look any further, summoned her sword, and stepped into the Heavenly Stele.

It was late autumn, and the fields were ablaze with red maple leaves.

Yan Huanyue walked on the low hill, the tip of her knife hanging on the ground, leaving a winding trail.

She looked at the red maple leaves that covered the valleys below the mountain, and felt a little puzzled.

The Heavenly Stele Secret Realm was created according to one's cultivation level. It was quiet and peaceful here. In the past, when she stepped into it, it was usually in the midst of a bitter wind and rain, and demons would immediately attack. She had never seen such a scene before.

She continued walking forward with a puzzled look, constantly glancing at the lush maple forest at the foot of the hill, trying to spot the monster hidden within.

The forest floor was calm and still, and even using the Spirit Sensing Technique, nothing could be detected.

Or perhaps the range of her spiritual perception technique is simply not very large.

As she walked, she saw a dilapidated Taoist temple on the mountainside in the distance. She made a hand seal with one hand, wobbled, and flew into the air, barely managing to reach the temple.

The Taoist temple was eroded by wind and rain, and was in a dilapidated state. One of the gates was missing, and the courtyard was filled with broken walls, cobwebs, and wild trees, making it particularly desolate in the autumn wind.

Three incense sticks, covered in ash, were stuck crookedly in the incense burner in front of the main hall, and a busy spider was weaving a large web between the three sticks.

Yan Huanyue stood outside the gate and saw that the plaque on the main hall was gone, leaving only a tattered and mottled old wooden couplet.

The inscription reads: "If your heart is wicked, burning incense will bring you no benefit. If you are upright, what harm is there in not bowing to me?"

This is a couplet used in many Taoist temples.

Yan Huanyue didn't know who was enshrined inside. She stood by the door for a long time, being blown by the wind that passed through it, before finally turning around and walking away without going in.

Unexpectedly, the scene around her changed as soon as she turned around.

Under the pitch-black night sky, a woman dressed in a bright red wedding gown, with her face heavily powdered and rouge-red, stood in front of her, holding a white paper lantern, and looked her over with a sinister gaze.

"You have the aura of a succubus on you."

Yan Huanyue sniffed, but didn't think she smelled Pei Shidi on herself.

The woman licked her lips with her bright red tongue. "This untouched aura is so sweet. I haven't tasted a succubus in many years. Bring him in so I can play with him, and I'll tell you how to get a ranking."

Yan Huanyue gripped the knife hilt tightly and stared at her quietly. "I'm here to sharpen my knife. Rank doesn't matter for now."

The woman covered her mouth and giggled, her laughter growing increasingly shrill, her hair ornaments jingling loudly.

"What a stingy person! You don't use it yourself, and you won't even give it to others. What a waste! What a waste! Do you know how much people miss those succubi? You... ugh... ugh..."

Cold sweat instantly broke out through the thick layer of powder.

Her face was contorted in a grimace, and she suddenly clutched her stomach, vomiting a large amount of black blood. Her voice trembled slightly.

"Old man Xuan Shen, you're such a useless old bachelor, and you restrict me like this? Can't I even have a little venting? Sooner or later... I'll sleep with every young and tender man in your Tianyan Sect, ugh... ugh..."

Xie Xuanshen, the first sect leader of the Tianyan Sect, used the Heavenly Stele to suppress evil spirits. After his death, he infused his own will into the Heavenly Stele to continue suppressing evil.

Even after the Heavenly Stele was later replaced as a whetstone for the sect's disciples, its will still protected the sect's disciples, preventing the younger generation from dying within the Heavenly Stele.

Seeing that she was vomiting nonstop, Yan Huanyue gripped the knife and turned to leave.

The woman's eyes rolled back suddenly, the whites of her eyes filling her eye sockets. She gave a sinister smile, and the blood on her chin, combined with her eerie white face and rouge makeup, made her look exceptionally strange.

Countless ghostly figures struggled out from the dim lamplight and pounced on Yan Huanyue.

"I refuse to believe that I can't kill a Tianyan disciple!"

Holding the swords in both hands, Yan Huanyue leaped into the air, channeling her spiritual power into the blades, and slashed down the nearest ghostly figure in mid-air.

After several encounters with a group of ghostly figures, she was covered in sweat, her hair disheveled, and she floated unsteadily in mid-air, the ghostly figures swooping down to grab her skirt.

She calmed herself, swung her knife horizontally, and the wind from the blade tore apart several ghostly figures. In the blink of an eye, they returned to their original state, ripping her clothes and scratching her legs.

Yan Huanyue quickly cut off half of her skirt, flipped over and landed on a cold patch of ground, where a group of ghostly figures whistled and swirled towards her.

Seeing this, she gripped the knife in her right hand, rested the blade against the crook of her left arm, quickly recited the incantation in her mind, and swiftly made a hand seal with her left hand.

Three illusory swords rose from behind her, swaying and indistinct, flying like meteors into the group of ghostly figures, tearing the three ghostly figures apart in an instant.

She was pleasantly surprised. In the past, she only succeeded about 50% of the time when she used spiritual power to conjure a horizontal sword. Today, she combined the complete essentials of the Slow Stop Chapter with the complete incantation and she succeeded on her first try!

Indeed, those six years in her previous life were not a waste of time; everything she had accumulated was still there. However, it must be said that her foundation was not solid, and things were going to fall apart.

Just as the ghostly figures were about to pounce again, the one-hour time limit expired, and Yan Huanyue was ejected from the Heavenly Stele, landing on the grass beside the Shattered Jade Waterfall.

As dawn broke, she sat cross-legged on the spot and, following the instructions in the Heavenly Stele, once again channeled her energy and formed hand seals, conjuring three frail, illusory images of horizontal swords.

A faint joy welled up in my heart; the happiness of a slight improvement in my cultivation was somewhat refreshing.

She dispersed the illusory image, got up to go back and apply some medicine, and then had breakfast before going to Xinzizhai for class.

Just as she walked through the deep forest, she saw a tall, slender figure in dark robes stride past her in the sunlight.

Her heart skipped a beat, and a chill ran through her body. Her right hand instinctively reached out and grabbed at the air, lifting the long sword from her mind and causing it to fall heavily to the ground.

She forgot that this was the Tianyan Sect, the place where the Spirit Protection Technique was most powerful. Even if Fu Yinhuan had the greatest ruthlessness, she couldn't kill and plunder disciples in the Tianyan Sect without being discovered.

However, her long-suppressed hatred and fear made her temporarily unwilling to interact with Fu Yinhuan alone.

She quietly retreated to the path under the trees and waited for a while. Only when the fifth pear blossom fell onto her sleeve did she step out of the woods.

As soon as she stepped outside, she saw Fu Yinhuan, dressed in black robes, standing with his hands behind his back, facing her, beneath the misty green mountains.

He calmly recounted what he had witnessed, "Fellow Daoist Yan, are you avoiding me?"

Yan Huanyue walked forward with even steps, not wanting to make a pointless attempt to cover up such a trivial matter.

Fu Yinhuan's opinion of her was probably only whether to kill her or not. Even if she groveled on the ground as his servant, it was hard to guarantee that it would quell his murderous intent.

If that's the case, why bother being extra considerate to him despite feeling disgusted?

She gave a half-smile, making it impossible to tell whether she was impatient or joking. "I thought Fellow Daoist Fu could tell."

Fu Yinhuan assumed it was because of Yu Zhao, so he wasn't curious about why she was avoiding him, nor did he ask any further questions. He simply smiled apologetically.

"It was my presumption. I heard that an elder of your sect was giving a lecture on Qimen Dunjia at Mingjian Pavilion this morning. I would like to listen in. I wonder if you could point me in the right direction?"

Is he also going to Mingjian Pavilion? Then Junior Brother Pei is probably going to listen to Qimen Dunjia today as well.

He may have come here to find Yu Zhao and the others, but missed them, which is why he came to her for help.

The art of Qimen Dunjia can be used for divination and array formation. It encompasses a wide range of things, is complex and obscure, and is extremely difficult to master.

Divination is difficult to produce immediate results, but it is quite useful in formations.

Ordinary cultivators often use it as a supplementary cultivation method, choosing the parts that are suitable for their own use to assist in their cultivation. Only array cultivators will exhaust their energy and find it difficult to extricate themselves from it.

Qimen Dunjia is a rigorous and exquisite system of methods, numerology, and techniques.

If one has talent, one will gradually learn more and more deeply, and the deeper one learns, the more one discovers its vastness and immensity. When one's own knowledge is less than that of fireflies, one will study even more diligently.

The saying that nine out of ten Qimen practitioners are crazy is not without basis.

Fu Yinhuan was not skilled in formations, but it was unexpected that he was quite interested in Qimen Dunjia.

Yan Huanyue didn't want to spend any more time alone with him, so she casually pointed south and said, "This road is easy to reach if you travel quickly."

Fu Yinhuan bowed in thanks and turned to head south.

The eastern horizon gradually brightened, a sign that the rising sun was about to awaken.

Looking at Yan Huanyue's exceptionally dashing figure in the morning breeze, I couldn't help but recall that winter when she accepted a small mission to go to Yongbei to seek enlightenment.

Upon meeting Yu Zhao and the others, she learned that they had been attacked and that Fu Yinhuan had gone missing. Yu Zhao asked her to stay and help search for her.

It was the dead of winter, and the mountains were blocked by heavy snow. She was quite worried and searched very hard.

She searched the mountain for two whole days, and it wasn't until the second evening when the wind and snow were at their heaviest that she dug out Fu Yinhuan, who was lying prone in the snow, her shoulder blades pierced and half-frozen.

She used up almost all the medicine in her treasure pouch to nourish his heart. After carrying him back, Tan Guiyi and the others were very attentive to him, so it was not her turn to take care of him.

Therefore, her brief mission was completed by someone else, and her training was aborted.

The group of them stayed around Fu Yinhuan all day long. Tan Guiyi was so anxious that she shed tears, and Yu Zhao comforted her from time to time.

Later, when Fu Yinhuan woke up and recovered from her injuries, the four of them would gather together to talk about everything under the sun. But if she went to visit her and said a word, the four of them would stop talking and only exchange glances.

In the silence and quiet, amidst the subtle and ever-present rejection, how could she not sense that others disliked her?

From then on, she never finished saying that she wanted to have children with Yu Zhao again, which is why she later told Yu Zhao that if he was still upset, he could cancel the engagement.

But later, ah...

This kind of ungrateful and cruel poison seed, let's bury it on the mountain this time.

.

After returning home, Yan Huanyue applied medicine to her leg injury. Just as she reached the dining hall, she heard someone calling out to her from afar:

"Junior Sister Yan, what are you still doing here? Senior Brother Yu's parents have arrived. They went to Changqing Hall and brought dozens of attendants carrying several large boxes of things!"

While getting her food, Yan Huanyue casually replied, "Oh, I still have to go to Zhijing Hall for class."

At the same time, Fu Yinhuan, who had walked out of the Tianyan Sect in the direction she pointed, stood beside the towering mountain gate and looked down at the green wilderness several feet below the cliff. She couldn't help but look north into the wind.

A note from the author:

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The couplets in this chapter are taken from the couplets of the Dao Da Guang Hall of the Wanshou Baxian Palace in Xi'an, with two characters slightly changed. However, this couplet has been seen in many Taoist temples and City God Temples across the country.