Chapter 128 The Great Dao is Abandoned "Without permission, I have dared to spy on you; this is an overreach of my authority..."
Zhou Yaren tried to get out of bed, but she couldn't muster any strength in her left leg. Every time she moved, she aggravated the bone injury in her knee, and the pain made her break out in a cold sweat.
He had broken his leg twice, which gave him enough experience, so he dared not act rashly again.
As for Elder He, Zhou Yaren was a rather worry-free patient. He listened to the doctor's advice without question. Therefore, Elder He, who was usually stern, had recently softened his expression towards him and clearly told him: "As long as you rest and recuperate, your leg will not be crippled."
The laughter of two children could be heard from outside the courtyard wall. They were excitedly talking about the locust flower buds on a tree that were about to bloom, and how they would be able to eat locust flower cakes in a day or two.
But Elder He, inside the courtyard wall, roared angrily: "It's burnt! It's scorched! You stupid brat, can't you even cook a simple porridge?"
The foolish boy Lin Mu was in a flurry of activity, making a lot of noise as he slammed things down on the stove.
"I can't count on you at all! Look at you, you've burned all the straw, all you know how to do is pick up the flammable stuff to burn, that's for starting a fire!"
"I'm sorry, Elder."
"Hey, stop messing around! You'll burn the pot to a crisp! Quickly, get a ladle of water."
Zhou Yaren woke up at noon, drank water to stave off hunger in the afternoon, and finally had this bowl of porridge at dusk.
With his face covered in filth, Lin Mu finally managed to cook this hard-won medicinal porridge under Elder He's scolding. During the process, he thought countless times, "If only Senior Brother Lian Zhao were here."
Lin Mu sat on the edge of the tatami mat, looking utterly miserable, and ate a steamed bun. He heard Ting Fengzhi say, "I'm sorry to have troubled you."
To prepare this bowl of medicinal porridge, Lin Mu had been berated by Elder He all afternoon for being a fool. He was already furious, like a pufferfish. He wiped his mouth, leaving several black handprints on it, and puffed out his cheeks as he complained, "Elder He has such a temper! He can't talk back when he scolds me. If I say a word, he says I'm rebelling, that I'm being disobedient, and that he'll go to the sect leader to report me and have the sect leader expel this traitorous bastard from Taihang! No, what did I do? How did I become a traitor? It's utterly unreasonable! Utterly barbaric! Luckily, I'm not his disciple, or I would have already tied a rope and hanged myself in front of his door!"
Before Zhou Yaren could comfort the child, Elder He stood in front of the door and said, "With your pig brain, so stupid and clumsy, you still want to be my disciple? Not even in your next life!"
Lin Mu, unable to bear it any longer, said: "Whoever wants to be your disciple, I'd rather hang myself than become your master!"
"Hmph, a mediocre fool like you is far inferior to my disciple. I don't know how you managed to sneak into Taihang in the first place."
To say that he is mediocre and just trying to take advantage of the situation is simply intolerable!
Lin Mu's eyes were red with anger: "What can your cunning and slick apprentice do? All he does is talk a good game and flatter you! He's a complete sycophant! If I got into this world by muddling through, then he got in by sucking up to you!"
"You arrogant and rude little brat! You have no respect for your elders, you are rebellious and have gone too far! Today I will teach you a lesson!" Elder He took off his boots, grabbed the soles, and rushed in to hit the man.
Lin Mu's eyes widened in shock, and he leaped three zhang high into the air: "Elder! A gentleman uses words, not fists!"
Elder He chased him all over the room, almost slapping the little brat with the sole of his shoe: "I'll teach you to be so disrespectful, I'll teach you to be so disrespectful!"
As Lin Mu dodged and weaved, he rolled around on the couch, and the sole of his shoe struck Zhou Yaren from behind. Fortunately, Elder He's skill in striking people was so refined that he could control his movements perfectly, and no innocent bystanders were harmed; the shoe only struck Lin Mu.
"Ah! Elder, please don't hit me! Ah, Elder, I was wrong!" Lin Mu was hit several times with the sole of a shoe, then crawled under Elder He's armpit and scrambled out the door.
As the most stubborn old man in Taihang, he would not rest until he beat this brat's bottom until it was bruised and battered. Anyone who dared to belittle his most beloved disciple was to offend him.
"Ah! Elder, I was wrong. Senior Brother Qu is not a flatterer. Senior Brother Qu is eloquent and persuasive."
"You can say whatever you want, good or bad, but I think you're just asking for a beating!" Elder He was clearly not going to let him off easily.
Zhou Yaren was initially worried, but given his appearance, he couldn't really get involved. As he listened, he found himself amused by the old man and the young man.
Zhou Yaren subconsciously touched the Death Umbrella beside him. The empathy he had established with it had long been severed. He didn't know what state Bai Yuan was in, so after hesitating and thinking for a long time, he finally pricked his fingertip out of concern.
Once the empathy was established, images immediately appeared before Zhou Yaren's previously dark eyes.
This place is pitch black, and seven statues of prison gods are stationed around it.
When Gao Yao built the prison, this was the very place he had personally visited, where the Taiyin/Daoist body, imprisoned for a thousand years, had been imprisoned by a wronged person.
Each iron lock was engraved with dense ancient inscriptions, like layers of superimposed restraints, binding Bai Yuan's hands, feet, and body.
And at the other end of each shackle, a death row inmate was firmly bound.
Their deaths varied greatly. Some were beheaded, their necks riddled with gaping holes the size of bowls, blood flowing down their chests, heads rolling to the ground, piling up like mountains, their eyes wide open in death, indistinguishable from one another. Others had their skin torn open, their bodies covered in whip marks from torture. Some had their eyes gouged out, noses cut off, or tongues pulled out. Some had their hands and feet severed. Some had branding marks on their chests. Some, executed by slow slicing, had no flesh left, only bare skeletons exposed after being cut into a thousand pieces…
At a glance, the number of the gruesome dead was countless, like a mass grave or a mass burial site, with corpses torn apart by extreme torture everywhere you looked.
For a thousand years, Bai Yuan has coexisted with them here, and thus she has a thousand years of memories in this Taoist prison, day and night, month and year, accompanied by the wronged souls.
Unable to break free of her shackles or escape the prison, she could only bear one injustice after another year after year, without end.
Looking back now, Zhou Yaren is filled with sadness and self-blame.
Why did the innocent suffer such injustice?
Is she lonely?
Is it painful?
Is there no hope?
Did you ever harbor resentment?
Did she resent Fang Xiandao, and also resent A Zhaosu?
And then there's He Yan, who always gives you trouble, and even Zhou Yaren, who barged in and tried to kill you.
Bai Yuan thought to herself that she was not a saint who prioritized public opinion and the well-being of believers, so of course she would also feel resentment and hatred. She blamed Heaven and others, but she would let it go after she had blamed them; she couldn't really go astray.
In this world, it is difficult to maintain one's true nature and reason. Even as time passes, she still remembers why she came into being and why she exists.
Even at this moment, Zhou Yaren still didn't understand why. Why was the innocent person bound by the wronged spirit?
The origins of Bai Yuan's injustice remain a mystery.
His intervention and state of mind will directly affect the memories in the Death Umbrella, and the sealed memories will begin to resurface due to his questions.
Once a sense of empathy is established, Zhou Yaren can easily explore.
Then the scene before my eyes suddenly changed.
Here, mountains and rivers press close together, with sheer cliffs and only a narrow passage. In the treacherous canyon, an old man dressed in plain clothes and hemp shoes rides a blue ox westward. Its iron hooves clatter as it passes, and its curved horns brush against the cliffs on both sides several times. The setting sun casts the shadows of the man and the ox onto the rock face.
The mountain wind swept through the gorge, ruffling the old man's frosty hair and white clothes. He closed his eyes, held a black umbrella upside down, and swayed left and right with the staggering steps of the blue ox.
Zhou Yaren stared blankly at the scene, completely dumbfounded.
The image of the old man, the blue ox, and the westward journey immediately reminded him of Lao Tzu's westward journey.
The black umbrella that Lao Tzu carried upside down was exactly the same as the death umbrella.
It turns out to be Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism.
During Lao Tzu's time, in the late Spring and Autumn Period, the feudal states disregarded the Zhou rites, usurped the title of king, and waged endless wars. Furthermore, King Zhuang of Chu "asked about the tripods in the Central Plains," and the Zhou emperor became merely a nominal ruler of the world.
The Records of the Grand Historian states: "Thirty-six rulers were murdered, fifty-two states were destroyed, and countless feudal lords fled in disarray, unable to protect their altars of state."
It is evident that the power transitions were bloody and chaotic, and the people suffered greatly, which constituted a period of disorder.
Laozi, who once served as the Keeper of the Archives in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, witnessed the "abandonment of the Great Way" and knew that the Zhou royal family was declining and its fate was exhausted. Therefore, he resigned from his post and went west.
The old man rode a blue ox through high mountains and deep valleys, forded streams and rivers, and traveled along narrow paths with sheer cliffs. There he saw a pass in a deep valley as steep as a box, named Hangu Pass.
Hangu Pass is situated on a plateau to the west and bordered by a deep ravine to the east, serving as a vital passage between Chang'an to the west and Luoyang to the east.
Lao Tzu traveled west and exited the Hangu Pass.
It is said that Yin Xi, the gatekeeper who was skilled in observing qi, saw purple qi coming from the east on the city tower that day. He hurriedly ordered the gatekeepers to sweep the streets to welcome the sage.
Before long, an old man with white hair and beard was seen riding backwards on a blue ox toward the gate. The gatekeeper, Yin Xi, hurriedly stepped forward to greet him and said, "You are about to go into seclusion. Please write a book for me."
Thus, Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching, a masterpiece that became the foundational work of the Taoist school. For thousands of years, countless Taoists have made pilgrimages to Hangu Pass to worship their ancestors.
However, what Zhou Yaren saw in the Death Umbrella at this moment was that on the gate tower built of blue stone, Lao Tzu gave the gatekeeper Yin Xi not only the five thousand words of the Tao Te Ching, but also the black umbrella that he always carried.
Lao Tzu stood with an umbrella in hand, facing the gentle breeze. As his beard and hair fluttered, he narrowed his eyes slightly and carefully handed the black umbrella to Yin Xi, as if he had glimpsed the secrets of heaven. He whispered, "The south wind is not strong."
Guan Ling Yin Xi bowed deeply and carefully accepted the umbrella with both hands.
This is clearly a form of entrustment.
Zhou Yaren certainly understood the meaning of Lao Tzu's words: "When the south wind is not strong, there will be many deaths."
Lao Tzu was born during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, a time of decline for the Zhou Dynasty, when feudal lords vied for supremacy, and turmoil and warfare were rampant, with scenes of cruelty and bloodshed no less than the Battle of Puzhou.
This black umbrella accompanied the sage through chaotic times, enduring bloodshed and violence.
Therefore, it was also a death-announcing umbrella left by the sage Hangu Pass when he imparted the scriptures to the world.
The sage further said: "This chaotic world will drag on for centuries, with wars lasting for hundreds of years. When that time comes, the world will surely be unified. In this world, fortune and misfortune are intertwined, and cause and effect are interconnected. If Heaven's will does not change, the umbrella of death will befall us..."
However, at the crucial moment, before Zhou Yaren could finish listening to what was to come, her consciousness was suddenly violently shattered. After a dizzying spin, darkness returned, but she saw a human figure lying beside her.
Bai Yuan woke up and stared at him expressionlessly.
Zhou Yaren felt uneasy and scared under her gaze, and immediately apologized: "It was my overstepping of my bounds to spy on you without your permission."
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Author's note: I couldn't resist the temptation and went out to play today, so this chapter is late, but it's here nonetheless.
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