Chapter 459 Descending God
"Why is the immortal lady not saying anything?"
“Ouyang Lianghan, you…did you conspire with that Shangqing Taoist priest to make me a slave to the Mozi and be exploited day and night…”
"Well, not really."
"You've even brought out the 'True Teachings,' yet you still won't tell me the truth. This is outrageous! You're insulting wisdom as well. You can't treat immortals like this..."
"No, really."
Looking at the little ink spirit with a lifeless expression at the desk, Ouyang Rong felt a little embarrassed and shrugged:
"It just so happens that you are able to learn it, and you happen to know about the Spirit Ink, so I have no choice but to trouble you."
"You're talking nonsense. You're not one of those Taoist priests who make a living from five pecks of rice. How could you possibly learn this method?"
"The Five Pecks of Rice Taoist Priest?"
"The Three Mountains of Talismans belong to the Jiangnan Taoism, which originated from the Five Pecks of Rice Sect. It used to be called by that name, and the sect leader has always been surnamed Zhang. Later, it evolved into the Celestial Master's Mansion lineage of Longhu Mountain, which has been passed down for countless generations..."
"Wait, Ouyang Lianghan, do you have the bloodline of the Celestial Master's Mansion? Are you a descendant of the Zhang family?"
"Uh, no, we obviously don't share the same surname. Don't try to claim we're related."
"Then why are you even studying it?"
"Swearing again?" Ouyang Rong looked at her with a half-smile.
"I'm so angry!"
Miao Si leaned back and sat on the table, throwing a tantrum. She spread her hands, refusing to do anything more.
"Why do you all want spirit ink? I... I don't have that much literary energy. If I make you enough spirit ink to draw a talisman, I'll lose my essence blood. I'm so weak. Don't take my blood. It hurts so much, waaaah."
"So, over at the Three Mountains of Talismans, there are also female ink spirits like you, whose blood is secretly drawn by the Three Pure Ones Ancestral Hall to supply them with a continuous stream of spiritual ink?"
"It's not quite that crude, but it's close. They're treated like slaves, forced to consume the unwanted incense and offerings of the Xuanmen sect to produce spirit ink every day, otherwise they can't replenish the lost essence and ink energy..."
"and you……"
"I'm a picky eater. I only like the fragrant, literary aroma of food, and I don't like the bland and unpalatable aroma of esoteric practices."
"So you can't produce spirit ink right now?"
"I can only produce a little bit. I just woke up and recovered, and I didn't consume much literary energy. A lot of it was given to Miss Xie to help her break through her cultivation realm. The extra can only produce a little bit of spiritual ink, not even enough for you to write a single word. I... I'm still young, please let me go, okay..."
Ouyang Rong remained unmoved: "You're not young anymore. Weren't you just saying you knew a lot and were quite proud of yourself? You've existed for at least three hundred years. Is that what you call not young?"
“…” Miao Si said weakly, “It can’t be calculated like that…”
Ouyang Rong asked calmly:
"So as long as you consume literary energy, you can produce it continuously?"
"Yes, that's right, but where am I supposed to get literary energy to eat? I've searched all over Xunyang City, but I haven't found many true talents. Apart from a poor, lowly official living in a temple, none of them are quite good enough. I can't get enough literary energy, so I can only eat Hanlei ink sticks to fill my stomach for now. I'll just make do and get by with whatever I can get, like the difference between delicacies and plain steamed buns."
“Hey, literary talent is hard to come by. Even the ink envoys raised by the Three Pure Ones have to be forced to switch to eating incense. It’s practically abusing spirits. Ouyang Lianghan is even more inhuman than you.”
Miao Si clenched her fist, filled with righteous indignation.
"Thank you for the compliment."
Ouyang Rong thanked him briefly, then ignored him and took out paper and pen to start writing.
"Wait, Ouyang Lianghan, what are you doing?" Miao Si waited for a while and then realized something was wrong.
"Didn't you want something more literary? Is this one enough?"
"ah?"
Miao Si glanced down, her expression changing slightly, but she remained stubborn:
"One...one article isn't enough."
"Then let's do one more, no, ten, twenty, never mind, let's start with thirty..."
Miao Si: "...??"
If other conditions were required, Ouyang Rong would be in a bit of a predicament, but if it was just a lack of poetry... he had memorized quite a lot when he was preparing for his postgraduate entrance exam, and according to the tropes of some online novels from his previous life, he would be a plagiarist by now.
Well, actually he's just too lazy to copy, which is why he seems low-key. But now that he lacks the literary energy to make the little ink spirit produce spiritual ink, he has no choice but to use his traditional skills.
Fortunately, there was little plagiarism or pretentiousness in the past, so there was a large stockpile, which is just what we need now. We can supply it to Miaosi... We shouldn't lack literary talent in the short term.
Seeing Ouyang Rong bent over his desk, writing furiously, and producing one stunning poem after another with his dragon-like brush, Miao Si couldn't help but lean back, feeling an unprecedented abundance of inspiration emanating from the desk in front of her.
The young woman in Confucian robes swallowed hard.
Ouyang Rong wrote without stopping, and soon it was her turn to panic:
"Alright, alright, stop writing. I know how amazing you are, the great poet. How come you don't even pause? You're cheating. Did you have a draft in mind beforehand? You can't really be a banished immortal, can you? Strange, strange."
"Okay, please stop writing. That's enough, really enough. You can save some, but I can't eat any more. Ugh, you're so rude, ruining a good poem..."
After writing another poem, "Picking Mulberry Leaves," Ouyang Rong leisurely put down his pen and glanced at her sideways:
"How long does it take to prepare the spiritual ink for one talisman?"
The young woman in Confucian robes knelt down at the desk, carefully rolling up sheets of elegantly written Xuan paper. With meticulous movements, she gently placed them aside and tucked them away, whispering:
"Give this fairy half a day... a red and black talisman, right? I'll give you enough ink to write one."
"good."
Ouyang Rong's repertoire of poems was actually limited, and some of the most brilliant and unparalleled ones were simply not suitable to be recited. He couldn't write endlessly, but fortunately, this little ink spirit, though boastful, seemed to have a belly that was easily filled...
Miao Si sat contentedly amidst a pile of exquisite poems, and couldn't help but glance at the composed Ouyang Rong, asking with some curiosity:
"You really can learn the 'True Teachings' and use the Shangqing's ultimate techniques? Does that mean you can also use all the Three Mountains Talismans? Does the Sanqing Taoist sect know about this?"
Ouyang Rong shook his head: "Naturally, I didn't say much to them."
“Ouyang Lianghan, are you sure your surname isn’t Zhang? Or… did someone next door have the surname Zhang before?”
"If you ask again, I'll beat you up."
"..."
Ouyang Rong suddenly looked troubled, grabbed the old, blackened booklet on the table, stood up, and paced alone in the study.
The gluttonous little ink spirit couldn't help but look up, her words slightly muffled as she devoured her food:
"Hmm, Ouyang Lianghan, why are you sighing?"
"The Three Pure Ones' unique skills, namely, the Divine Decree and the Nine-Turn Elixir, are among the top-tier Qi Refining techniques in both the Northern and Southern Daoist sects."
"Among the three mountains of talismans, there are only a handful of qualified Taoists who can cultivate them. You are an outsider, neither the illegitimate son of the Zhang family nor a direct descendant of the Three Pure Ones. You were able to obtain the 'True Proclamation' to study and were even more fortunate to receive ink from this fairy maiden. It's like a pie falling from the sky. You should be overjoyed. Why are you still frowning?"
Ouyang Rong frowned and turned around:
"Aren't we still lacking special talisman paper? You can only produce spirit ink, but what about talisman paper? We're still missing one thing, and it's the hardest to find... Wait, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face? Go eat your literary energy and stop staring at people like that. If you looked at people like that in my hometown, you'd get beaten up..."
Ouyang Rong was speaking when he suddenly noticed that the young woman in Confucian robes had stopped eating and was looking at him with a strange expression. Ouyang Rong couldn't help but urge her on.
“Ouyang Lianghan, you…you really don’t know? It seems you’re completely clueless about talisman making.”
"It is indeed my first time drawing a talisman, but I'm missing spirit ink and talisman paper. No, what exactly do you mean?"
"What do you mean? This fairy is truly impressed by you, hahaha, I can't take it, I'm going to die laughing."
Miao Si was overjoyed, clutching her stomach and rolling around in laughter.
Just as the stern-faced Ouyang Rong was about to reach out, the little female Taoist priest on the table suddenly pointed to the old, blackened booklet in Ouyang Rong's hand, whose cover bore the words "Zhen Gao":
"The pages in your hand are just the finest talisman paper. What else are you looking for? Hahaha, this fairy is laughing so hard. You're the dumbest, without a doubt."
"..."
Ouyang Rong exclaimed "Ah!" and couldn't help but glance down at the old booklet, which had about twenty pages long. He raised an eyebrow...
evening.
In the study of Yinbingzhai, Ouyang Rong sat upright at his desk.
The young woman in Confucian robes was not in the study; faint, rhythmic snoring could be heard coming from the inner room not far away.
It was during the afternoon when I was bursting with literary inspiration and producing brilliant ideas that I collapsed from exhaustion and was dozing off.
Not a single drop is left today.
Undisturbed by the snoring, Ouyang Rong sat quietly at the table, his gaze falling on the few items placed on the desk in front of him.
First, there was a golden alms bowl containing half a bowl of blood-red ink, emitting a pine resin scent. After smelling it for a while, it even gave one a faint urge to compose poems.
Beside the golden alms bowl, there was an old, blackened piece of paper, as if it had been torn from a booklet. There were some withered yellow writings on the other side, and the blank side was facing up.
Furthermore, Ouyang Rong skipped the talisman-drawing brush and directly borrowed Miao Si's snow-white whisk.
Anyway, everything is made from local materials, with the main idea being to make the most of everything.
To paraphrase what a certain little ink sprite said before collapsing from exhaustion: the smartest, without a doubt.
Ouyang Rong glanced at the spirit ink and talisman paper, then took out the booklet of "True Teachings" with the last unimportant page torn out, and began to read it.
According to the "Zhen Gao".
The divine command must be used in conjunction with a red and black talisman. Those who have mastered this scripture can create their own red and black talisman, which contains the power of one divine command, and carry it with them for use at any time.
By casting a summoning edict, one can summon a "god" related to oneself to possess them. The probability of successfully summoning a god and the duration of the possession depend on the closeness of the relationship.
The "god" that is invited to possess a body has a certain instinctive consciousness, but as long as it is not malicious, it will not take over the body's control. Instead, the possessed "god" will refresh the possessed person's ability status.
Of course, the possessed being, as the vessel, cannot be too weak or fragile, otherwise they will explode and die from the divine intervention. In addition, the true strength of the descending "god" will be suppressed to some extent, depending on the situation of the possessed being, because generally a higher-ranking being descends to a lower-ranking one, otherwise there would be no need for divine intervention.
Finally, at the end of the book, when introducing the divine decree, an additional sentence was mentioned:
The divine decree can summon one's past self as a "god" to possess them, thus maintaining a state of full health without any negative effects...
Upon seeing this last item, Ouyang Rong's eyes widened slightly.
This trick of borrowing power from one's past self to maintain a high level of spirituality seems a bit too intense. He was originally worried about how to invite "gods," since he was not familiar with the gods and ancestors of the Three Pure Ones and could not achieve "close connection."
Immediately, Ouyang Rong frowned. Asking himself to possess the body was just a matter of extending his state once, which wasn't too overbearing. After all, if he faced an enemy like Xue Zhongzhu head-on, without the "Origin of Emptiness" technique to borrow strength to unleash his sword, even if he refreshed his state ten times, he still wouldn't be able to defeat him...
The introduction in the "Zhen Gao" is concise and to the point, but Ouyang Rong knew that as a unique Shangqing martial art that had been preserved in the Ancestral Hall for hundreds of years, there would certainly not be a single superfluous word, and any precautions would definitely be explained.
For example, the technique of using one's past self as a deity to descend. Therefore, as long as it is within the above rules, it should be allowed and the invocation of the deity can be successful.
One point worth noting is that the True Scripture does not specify what kind of being the so-called "god".
After studying it for a while, Ouyang Rong felt more and more that this "god" was more like a metaphor.
He can create a red and black talisman that is closely related to him, and then, when he is seriously injured, he can summon his previous fully healed self to possess him.
But he is not a god.
"Since it can descend as a god, it means that the so-called god in the book does not refer to a real deity, but rather to a kind of ethereal and elusive spirit or soul."
"And the past self... doesn't that mean that a divine decree can also summon people who existed in the past... even the deceased can possess me, as long as they are closely related to me? So this god can also be the spirit of the deceased in heaven."
Ouyang Rong suddenly realized, but then he began to have doubts again:
"However, I am not a Taoist priest, and I don't know how the Shangqing sect uses the deity summoning edict. They should be able to summon quite a few 'gods,' after all, the Three Mountains of Talismans have produced many powerful figures throughout history who are worshipped as deities."
"But I don't know any powerful people, and even fewer who are closely related to me. I can't just invite my junior sister or Liu Lang to become gods all the time. If I can only descend from a high position to a low position, the scope will be even smaller. It feels like a useless thing for now."
"Furthermore, if the person invited is still alive, will they be able to sense it? They probably will, since it borrows the spiritual power of mythology..."
Just as he hesitated, footsteps suddenly came from outside the courtyard, followed by his junior sister's shouts, as if she was talking to Zhen Shuyuan and Ye Weilai.
Ouyang Rong immediately gathered up the many items on the table and went out.
"What's wrong, Junior Sister?"
After sending Zhen Shuyuan and Ye Weilai and other female relatives away, Ouyang Rong immediately asked.
"Master Lu is leaving tonight. He summoned the Prince and the Heir Apparent for a meeting, saying that he has an important matter to entrust to them."
Xie Lingjiang glanced at him: "Senior Brother would be best to go."
"good."
(End of this chapter)
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