51. Past Events
Old man Yao has lived his whole life and claims to have seen many storms and waves, but he has never seen the technique of turning boiling water into ice.
On the beam, the crow watched from afar for a long time, and finally couldn't help flying to the counter to take a closer look.
The dark cloud wanted to take the opportunity to pounce on it, but the crow easily waved it away with its wings.
Old Man Yao looked up at Chen Ji and asked, "Why is this happening?"
Chen Ji was in a dilemma.
When the temperature of a saturated solution drops, the solubility decreases and crystals precipitate.
This was a very simple sentence for him, but if he wanted to explain it to the people of Ning Dynasty, he would probably have to start from a very long time ago.
Old Man Yao fiddled with the tiny crystal. How could a bowl of water, after boiling over and over again, finally turn into ice? Yet it didn't feel cold to the touch.
"Boy, what is this?" Old Man Yao asked in confusion.
Chen Ji smiled and said, "It's what you just said, a strong and domineering thing."
Old Man Yao was even more puzzled. "Where did you learn alchemy? Huangshan or Laojun Mountain? But those Taoists wouldn't pass on such things... Could it be Wuji Mountain or Taiji Mountain?"
Chen Ji was silent. He couldn't explain where he learned it from.
Old Man Yao sneered: "Alright, if you don't want to tell me, then don't tell me... I just want to ask you, how powerful is this thing?"
Chen Ji thought for a moment and said conservatively: "...It hasn't been completed yet. If it is completed, it should be no problem to destroy a building, right?"
Old Man Yao stroked his beard, as if weighing his words as he admonished, "Although our art is known as 'Dragon Swallowing,' you must proceed slowly and not rush into anything. Once you've mastered the art of medicine, many officials will ask you to consult them on their deathbeds. Don't rush into anything too hastily; you know that greed leads to loss."
Chen Ji understood. His master was worried that he would go crazy and use this thing to murder Ning Dynasty officials to obtain Ice Flow...
He quickly said, "Master, I'm not trying to speed up my cultivation. I'm trying to protect myself."
"Oh..." Old Man Yao nodded and lay back on the bamboo chair: "That's good, you can continue."
In the main hall, there is an old man leisurely sitting on a recliner, a young man working with his sleeves rolled up, and crows and cats chasing and playing around, all in peace and quiet.
Chen Ji suddenly said, "Master, thank you."
"Thank me?" Old Man Yao raised his eyebrows. "Did I take six taels of silver from you make you stupid? Don't go crazy in the middle of the night. I won't return the money once it's in my hands. Don't play the emotional card."
Chen Ji smiled and asked, "Master, Heaven created the grass in the dark, the hard and the soft just began to blend and it was difficult to give birth. It moves in danger, and water and thunder gather. How do you interpret this hexagram?"
This was the divination that Old Man Yao gave before Chen Ji went to Wanxing Garden.
Old man Yao lay on a bamboo chair, swaying with his eyes closed. After a long while, he said, "New opportunities arise from desperate situations. Those who get this hexagram will live in the face of death."
Chen Ji nodded. "So, when you went to Wanxing Garden that night, it wasn't because you were afraid of danger, but because you predicted that you would harvest ice flow on that trip."
Old Man Yao did not answer.
Chen Ji continued, "You said it was dangerous to stay away, but you still came to save me that night at Zhou Chengyi's house."
Moreover, this master appears cold but is actually warm-hearted. If he really didn't care about anything, how could he allow Liang Gou'er to live in the clinic and teach him how to practice swordsmanship?
The clinic was quiet and peaceful. Crow looked at Chen Ji quietly, with approval in his eyes.
But Old Man Yao said, "This is all your own guess. Don't let your imagination run wild at such a young age."
Chen Ji said seriously: "No matter what you say, thank you."
"Why thank me? Just don't hate me in the future," said old man Yao with a vicissitudes of life.
"Hate you?"
Old man Yao laughed: "You
Do you think that giving you a path to cultivation is a good thing? When we were young, we all thought that as long as we possessed the ability to transcend the mundane world, we could become great heroes in the martial arts world. But what do you think a path to cultivation is? It is a curse and a cage that traps officials all over the world.
Chen Ji remained silent.
Old Man Yao sighed, "After discovering the path of cultivation, teachers have to be wary of their disciples, fathers have to be wary of their sons, and brothers have to be wary of their younger brothers. A good family has been torn apart. Do you think Liang Gou'er is happy? If he were, he wouldn't need to drink... Besides, what you should be worrying about now is what to do if you encounter other officials practicing the 'Mountain King' path again."
Chen Ji muttered softly, "Why didn't you kill them all before passing them on to me? There are still some sequelae..."
Old Man Yao glared: "You still blame me for this? Well, what should I do? Now give me 100,000 taels of silver, and I'll kill him for you!"
Chen Ji changed the subject: "How many tigers do you think are out there?"
Old Man Yao was thoughtful: "How many fires can you light with one ginseng root?"
"Two."
Old Man Yao, lying on his recliner with his eyes closed, said lightly, "This is easy to calculate. Before you became a mountain king, I could light three fires with one ginseng root... So, there should only be one mountain king left out there. After I die, you can light three fires with one ginseng root. If you kill the other mountain king, you can light six fires with one ginseng root. Are you tempted?"
It turns out that the impact of the increase or decrease in the number of people on spiritual practice is so direct.
When he thought of this, Old Man Yao slowly sat up and looked at Chen Ji in surprise and doubt: "You made this strong and domineering thing, you didn't use it to deal with me, did you?!"
Chen Ji was at a loss for words: "What are you thinking? I will definitely not stab you in the back, don't worry."
Old Man Yao remained noncommittal: "People's hearts are hidden. Only you know what you are thinking."
Chen Ji leaned on the counter while purifying saltpeter, thinking that his master was actually not as cold as he seemed. No matter who wanted to approach him, he would actively keep them at a distance.
"Master, did you personally..." Chen Ji stopped talking halfway because he didn't know if he could ask.
But then Old Man Yao said calmly, "Are you asking me if I killed my own son? Yes. This question has been on your mind for a long time, and you finally couldn't help asking me."
"Why did you kill him?"
Old Man Yao sneered, "Because I felt he was hindering my progress in cultivation. Although imperial physicians don't rely on salaries to survive, they can earn hundreds of taels of silver each year just from seeing dignitaries. But how can I afford the Mountain Jun Sect's high-handedness? One less practitioner means less money. So, I killed him myself."
Chen Ji had just finished purifying all the saltpeter. He picked up a rag, wiped his hands, and threw it on the counter. "You don't have to scare me. If you were that kind of person, you wouldn't have passed on the inheritance to him so early."
…
…
Old Man Yao closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time. "I have never had a wife, a son, or a daughter. In the twelfth month of the fourteenth year of the Zhengde reign, I was returning home from my shift at the Imperial Hospital. As I was walking down the road, a heavy snow began to fall. I saw a little beggar frozen under the eaves. At that time, I was kind-hearted, so I brought him a bowl of hot ginger soup from home."
"When the little beggar woke up, he begged me to take him in. I asked him how he became a beggar. He said his parents died in forced labor and he was driven out of the house by his uncle and aunt."
"I wasn't married at the time, so I was hesitant about taking in a beggar. I was a beginner at fortune-telling, and every time I tried, it was a bad result. I figured it was because I wasn't very good at it, so I didn't believe it. Finally, I decided to take a gamble and ask for his birth date."
"Born at 3:30 PM on the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month, the fourth year of the Zhengde reign," said Old Man Yao.
He seemed to sigh with emotion: "What a coincidence, he was born when the Tiger Sect's way was passed down. I thought at the time that this might be fate sent by God, so I raised him as a son."
At this time, Chen Ji had stopped what he was doing, sat cross-legged on the ground next to the rocking chair, listening quietly, with dark clouds squatting on his shoulders.
Old Man Yao continued slowly, "I had no intention of seeking immortality, so I taught him the Mountain King Way when he was just sixteen. I remember the first dragon energy he absorbed came from Yang Jiancheng, the Minister of Works."
"The child is very bright, quick to learn anything. He learned excellent medical skills from me. There are so many high-ranking officials in the capital, and when I'm too busy, I let him see patients. But I gradually discovered that none of the critically ill officials he treated were saved. I began to suspect something, and I went to his house at night to verify it... Censor Liu of the Inspectorate suffered from emphysema, and he prescribed a poisonous prescription even though it was clearly curable."
"He's so smart, so smart that he's learned pharmacology thoroughly. Even if he prescribes a poison that counteracts the other doctors, they won't be able to detect it. This person, once they're too smart, tends to take shortcuts..."
"I scolded him and made him kneel in the snow for three days and three nights. He knelt and cried and admitted his fault. I thought he was sincerely repentant, so I didn't send him to the Dali Temple. But because of this soft heart, he committed a heinous crime."
"In the following year, he became even more covert in his actions, even secretly poisoning my food. He even poisoned my first crow to death."
After saying this, Old Man Yao looked at the crow in the clinic and said, "The first one stayed with me for twenty-one years, and this is the second one. It has been with me for fifty-three years."
The crow flapped its wings and landed on Old Man Yao's shoulder, using its beak to gently comb his white hair. A dark cloud also jumped onto the armrest of the recliner and patted the back of Old Man Yao's hand with its furry claws.
Chen Ji asked curiously, "What happened next? What happened after you were poisoned?"
Old Man Yao shook his head: "I don't want to talk about it anymore. I'm tired."
Old Man Yao didn't say what happened after he was poisoned, nor did he say how he killed his adopted son. It seemed that he was hiding other secrets.
Chen Ji suddenly recalled that on the night he left Zhou's house, Old Man Yao had divined to avoid the little beggar. It turned out that the heavy snow in December of the fourth year of Zhengde had chilled the old man's heart.
All the passion and kindness in this world always seem to turn into a sigh.
Old man Yao opened his eyes and looked at Chen Ji. In his vicissitudes and calm eyes, he seemed to be looking at another person through Chen Ji, or looking at his former self through Chen Ji.
Old Man Yao slowly stood up and went back to the house: "Don't worry, I won't bother you for too long. There is no need for us to have a master-disciple relationship."
When Old Man Yao disappeared through the main door, Wuyun meowed, "He's afraid you'll be the next beggar."
Chen Ji hummed: "No."
Old man Yao brought him to the side of Prince Jing's Mansion, and carefully arranged for him to collect Bingliu. He also took in Liang Gou'er and taught him swordsmanship. No matter what the other party's attitude was, Chen Ji would never forget what the other party had done for him.
etc.
Yun Yang said that Old Man Yao was highly respected in the Imperial Hospital in the capital, but he suddenly chose to come to Luocheng and live next to Prince Jing's Mansion...
Prince Jing's Mansion?!
Chen Ji suddenly realized something: according to his speculation, Old Man Yao wanted to find another apprentice before he died and pass on the tiger skills.
But how can I make my apprentice grow quickly? I need to quickly obtain ice flow.
If it were anyone else, they would just have to take their chances and wait for the nobles to die.
But Old Man Yao is proficient in divination, so he can naturally calculate accurately where there will be disasters and where to absorb the ice flow!
Old man Yao suddenly resigned from his official position and came to Luocheng. It must be that the other party calculated that there would be a disaster in Prince Jing’s Mansion!
…
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