I shook my head. "This place is a bit eerie. Have you noticed? Something is missing."
"What's missing?"
"The Yama King's Palace shouldn't only contain these ghosts and gods; there should also be lesser demons and the Black and White Impermanence. This isn't the Yama King's Palace; this should be... it should be..."
"What should it be? Tell me quickly!" the old blind man urged.
"I can't really explain it. I feel like this must be a place where ancient cultivators practiced their methods. Perhaps they wanted to start with 'death' to learn things that the outside world couldn't know."
"Yes, I think so too," Uncle Liu from Hunan nodded in agreement. "Perhaps some of the Taoist elders back then discovered something, and perhaps they could use this to open the path to immortality. In mythology, there are six paths in the world. The Heavenly Path is at the top, the one that rules the world, the place where immortals and gods live. The other five paths are all related to the underworld, because the six paths of reincarnation are all completed through the underworld. It seems that they wanted to imitate an underworld to carry out the six paths of reincarnation. Taoism says that after a hundred reincarnations, one will finally achieve enlightenment. Buddhism also has the concept of the six paths of reincarnation, saying that all those who commit great evils and sins must go through the six paths of reincarnation to completely cleanse themselves of their evil deeds and sins."
Hearing what Uncle Liu from Hunan said, we all agreed. The old blind man swaggered up and took the Book of Life and Death from the judge's hand. "Hey, everyone says that the Book of Life and Death in the underworld records everyone's fate. If Yama wants you to die at midnight, you won't live to see the dawn. I want to see if that's true."
The old blind man took it down and opened it to look, but to his disappointment, every page was blank.
Just then, something strange happened. The previously blank Book of Life and Death slowly began to appear with ink, and to our horror, our names appeared, written in ancient script. Then our birth dates and times began to appear, and then...
Xiang Fei quickly snatched the Book of Life and Death, took out a yellow talisman, pasted it on the book, and then burned it on the Soul-Suppressing Lamp.
His face was extremely grim. "Old blind man, are you trying to kill us?"
We then realized what had happened and understood immediately. The Book of Life and Death was about to write our fates. We all looked at the old blind man. This old guy really knew how to cause trouble. He was bold when he should have been, but when he shouldn't have been, he was more reckless than anyone else.
"Tell me, what exactly is your intention?" Uncle Liu from Hunan suddenly grabbed the old blind man's collar. "I've suspected you for a long time. Back when you were robbing the Shu tomb, I clearly saw that you knew the art of Yin and Yang. Why are you pretending not to know it now?"
For a moment, we also looked at the old blind man with suspicion. At this moment, I also began to doubt him. Thinking of the tomb we encountered in the ghost city, and the incident that happened at Wang Jian's tomb, this old guy was indeed worthy of suspicion.
I had already told Xiang Fei about what happened in the ghost town, and of course Xiang Fei also became serious, telling me not to panic and to wait and see.
He also suspected that the old blind man was involved in something, that he was among us, and that he was trying to kill us.
With so many of us watching, the old blind man panicked. "It's not what you think. I really didn't mean to kill you. I was just curious. I can't shake my old habits. I didn't expect the Book of Life and Death to be so strange."
Seeing that we didn't believe him, the old blind man became anxious. "Immortal, I swear to heaven, if I ever try to harm you, may I be struck by lightning and reincarnated as an animal."
Xiang Fei said coldly, "Do you know that if I hadn't discovered it quickly enough and had the Book of Life and Death record our birth dates, our fates would have been written down, and we would have been able to see when we would die. This is against the laws of Heaven and will be punished by Heaven. Moreover, once the Book of Life and Death is completed, it's as if our fates are already in the hands of Yama, the King of Hell. At that time, it's probably true that if Yama wants me to die at midnight, we won't live to see the dawn."
Xiang Fei's words made the others gasp in astonishment. This was too unbelievable; how could such a thing exist in the world?
"But I really didn't know. I thought it was fake, just for show. Please believe me."
"You knew the art of Yin and Yang back then, why are you hiding it now? And where exactly do you come from?" Uncle Liu from Hunan asked again.
The old blind man's face turned bright red. "Back then, I only knew some simple Yin-Yang techniques. I don't use them now because... because..."
"Why?"
The old blind man hesitated for a moment, then said, "Alright, I'll tell you. I'm a descendant of the Eternal Sect. Now you should understand, right?" "The Eternal Sect?" We were all surprised. We hadn't expected the old blind man to be a member of the Eternal Sect. If it was true, then our doubts about him could be dispelled.
From the late ancient times in China, around the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Taoism gave rise to several sects, which later developed into several factions. The main reason was that there were three supreme beings who founded Taoism in ancient times, also known as the Three Pure Ones. Later, the Taoist sects founded by these three supreme beings began to compete for supremacy, each claiming to be the one and the orthodox one, and that everyone else should listen to them. This is how the Huashan and Wudang sects of today came about.
The various factions fought amongst themselves, but there was never a resolution. This led to the decline of Taoism and the rise of Buddhism, largely due to this conflict.
There are many schools of Taoism, but they are mainly divided into the Quanzhen School in the North and the Zhengyi School in the South. The Quanzhen School takes Laozi as its founder and inherits his Confucian thought, such as the Tao Te Ching. Later, it gradually formed the Quanzhen School, but in fact, their doctrines are basically the methods passed down from ancient times.
The Zhengyi sect, of course, refers to us. They advocate the arts of Yin and Yang and Feng Shui. The two sects have been fighting for thousands of years, and they still believe that their own way is the right path. If a disciple of the Quanzhen sect learns the Yin and Yang arts of the Zhengyi sect, it is considered a great disrespect, equivalent to being a traitor. At best, they will be expelled from the sect, and at worst, they will be punished according to the sect rules.
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