Chapter 48 The Essence of Yin "Could there be something different about this Yin Fire?"...
Just as Zhou Yaren was about to speak, a thug from the yamen rushed in, shouting, "Boss—"
Zhou Yaren and Bai Yuan turned to look.
"Uh," Hei Zi realized he had mistaken someone for someone else and looked around the clinic looking for him. "Wait, where's my boss?"
Bai Yuan raised an eyebrow: "Isn't my head perfectly fine resting on your neck?!"
Zhou Yaren looked at Bai Yuan. Was she joking with someone?
Hei Zi looked at Bai Yuan who was speaking, and immediately screamed in fright, covering his eyes: "Ouch!"
Bai Yuan's appearance was indeed startling to anyone who saw it, but she didn't care at all, remaining calm and unconcerned, as if she could scare someone to death.
Hearing the commotion in the backyard, Lu Bing staggered in, clutching his injured back: "Hei Zi, how are you?"
Hei Zi immediately turned to Lu Bing: "Boss, you're still here? I almost thought you went home. Didn't you order us to search the whole city for that new bride of the Shen family? We searched every street and alley, big and small, but we didn't see a single person. We really don't know which nook or cranny she's hiding in. Boss, did she and her accomplices really hurt you?"
Lu Bing said irritably, "She just choked your kidney. Keep searching. If you can't find her in the streets and alleys, then search every house in the neighborhood. I don't believe she can crawl into a hole."
"Yes, yes, yes, even if she crawls into a hole, we have to dig her out." Hei Zi accepted the order and left, disappearing like the wind in a flash.
Zhou Yaren, lying on her sickbed, frowned: "Lu Bing, what happened? Is your injury related to Chen Ying?"
"Of course! That's exactly what I was going to tell you. Last night, when I was chasing Qin San, I accidentally stumbled upon Chen Ying and her accomplices plotting something. I almost fell victim to their scheme, but thankfully this heroine... oh, Bai Yuan, came to my rescue. I didn't even have a chance to thank her before..." Lu Bing gave a strange look and veered the subject directly to Bai Yuan, "Um, if I may ask, what happened to you yesterday? It gave me quite a fright. How could so many, uh, um, things suddenly pop up inside my body?"
Bai Yuan nodded calmly: "Yes, someone put a curse on me, so that's how it is."
"A curse?" Lu Bing exclaimed in surprise. "Who cast a curse on you?"
Bai Yuan suddenly raised a malicious smile and pointed at Zhou Yaren with his eyes: "Him."
Zhou Yaren was caught off guard and ended up taking the blame: "..."
Lu Bing asked incredulously, "You?"
Zhou Yaren denied it helplessly: "It wasn't me."
Bai Yuan gave a forced smile: "Aren't you included?"
If the ashes of the talisman were considered a curse, Zhou Yaren knew he was in the wrong and shut his mouth.
Lu Bing immediately became alert: "No, why did you put a curse on her?" Although he asked this question, he cautiously moved closer to Zhou Yaren, deliberately keeping his distance from Bai Yuan.
Lu Bing felt a sense of foreboding. Based on his understanding of Zhou Yaren, Zhou Yaren wouldn't curse someone for no reason unless that person had some kind of problem.
“It’s nothing,” Zhou Yaren said naturally. “When she was injured, I added a talisman ash to her medicine powder.”
Lu Bing breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this: "So it's for treating injuries."
Bai Yuan sneered, "Shouldn't I be thanking you?"
Lu Bing was completely baffled by her contemptuous and ungrateful attitude and tone, and simply thought: Shouldn't she be like this?
Zhou Yaren felt that now that things had come to this, it was necessary to resolve the conflict: "You were seriously injured back then, and the ash from the talisman I put in the medicine powder can help suppress your injuries."
Bai Yuan quickly realized this was useful, but then asked, "Otherwise, why do you think you're still alive?"
Lu Bing was confused and interrupted, "Wait, is this kind of conversation between you two normal? If I didn't know better, I'd think you two had some kind of grudge?"
There was indeed some past grudge, but Zhou Yaren ignored Lu Bing and calmly said to Bai Yuan, "I wasn't really confident about that kind of torture. At the time, I thought sealing your spiritual meridians might be useful."
"You're all sweet talk and a dagger in your heart; you really intend to seal me off." She didn't care how he tried to make amends later; she considered it all just clever flattery. She wasn't someone who could be easily fooled by a few words.
Zhou Yaren smiled and, without defending herself, frankly said, "Yes, I think neither of them interferes with each other."
Lu Bing felt something was off as he listened. Just as he was about to ask them what kind of injuries they had suffered, Zhou Yaren turned around and asked him about what happened last night.
Lu Bing had no choice but to suppress his curiosity and briefly recount his experience from the previous night to Zhou Yaren. When he mentioned Yin Sui, he saw Zhou Yaren and Bai Yuan's expressions change simultaneously.
Zhou Yaren lowered her eyes: "Are they here for Yin Sui?"
Bai Yuan's expression suddenly turned grim: "You're here for Yin Sui too?"
After they finished speaking, the two locked eyes in a fierce confrontation.
Only Lu Bing was completely baffled: "What is this Yin Sui?"
Bai Yuan coldly questioned Zhou Yaren: "What do you want with Yin Sui?"
No comment.
Bai Yuan abruptly stood up, a chilling glint of ruthlessness flashing in his eyes: "Zhou Yaren!"
Lu Bing was startled, thinking she was about to draw her knife and stab someone, so he quickly stepped between the two of them: "Don't do anything, let's talk this out."
Lu Bing had witnessed Bai Yuan's martial prowess firsthand; he could kick someone two miles away with a single kick. Zhou Yaren's half-dead body couldn't withstand that.
Zhou Yaren did not show any fear: "It seems that my guess was right. The Taiyin/Dao Body under the Great River was constructed with Yin Sui."
Having been imprisoned in the Taiyin/Dao Body for thousands of years, she would naturally overreact and be extremely wary. His search for Yin Sui was to provoke her.
Bai Yuan's cold eyes were like knives: "What do you want to do?"
"I have my own purpose."
"Build me another prison?"
Lu Bing was dumbfounded: "No, can anyone tell me what exactly this Yin Sui is?"
Zhou Yaren turned his head away, avoiding Bai Yuan's sharp gaze. He couldn't deny that if one day he was forced to the brink, he would choose to use Yin Sui to deal with Bai Yuan.
But that wasn't his real purpose in seeking out Yin Sui.
Zhou Yaren spoke up: "You may not know about the Yin Sui (a type of fire-resistant mirror), but you must have heard of the Yang Sui (another type of fire-resistant mirror), right?"
"Huh? A sundial!" Lu Bing had indeed heard of sundial. "It's a kind of concave mirror cast in bronze. You can focus the light and start a fire by pointing it at the sun. Is it called a real fire or an open fire?"
"right."
The sundial is made of metal. Take a metal bowl without a rim, hold it three or four zhang high above the sun, and hold it towards the sun. Hold a dry mugwort about an inch high on the bowl, and after a while, scorch it. Blow on it and it will ignite, thus obtaining fire.
Zhou Yaren said, "The Yangsui can focus sunlight to ignite dry mugwort and obtain a flame. Since ancient times, yin and yang have been opposites, the sun and moon have been opposites, and water and fire have also been opposites. Therefore, there is naturally a Yinsui when there is a Yangsui. The Yangsui ignites when it sees the sun and becomes fire, while the Yinsui becomes water when it sees the moon. Therefore, the Yinsui can draw water from the moon, and it is also a tool for drawing water and fire from the sun and moon."
The sun is called "日" (rì), which represents the essence of yang, hence it is represented by fire on earth.
Taiyin is the moon, which is the essence of Yin. It receives the energy of the sun and has light, so it is water on earth.
Therefore, Zhou Yaren explained: "Using a yangsui (a type of firework) to capture the essence of the sun and obtain bright fire, and using a yinsui (another type of firework) to capture the essence of the moon and obtain bright water, both water and fire come from the heavens, and are used in the palace for sacrifices and divination."
“I see,” Lu Bing finally understood. “So you were looking for Yin Sui to retrieve the water from the palace for moon-fetching rituals?”
“Of course he is not,” Bai Yuan said. “The palace is not short of this Yin Sui for sacrifices.”
Lu Bing sensed something was off about her words, so he asked, "Is there something different about this piece of yin sui?"
Indeed, it is different. Zhou Yaren did not hide it from him: "It is said that this is a piece of Yin Sui that Laozi carried with him when he traveled west and left Hangu Pass."
"Ah." Lu Bing suddenly realized, "So it's something left behind by the Dao Ancestor. That's extraordinary. No wonder everyone's been searching for it. But what are they searching for? For sacrifices and divination?"
Bai Yuan replied indifferently, "It has many uses. Laozi's Yin Sui carries the Dao. You can use it to do all sorts of good things or all sorts of bad things."
Zhou Yaren responded, "The Yin Fire can carry the Dao, and one can also draw water from the moon. The accumulated coldness of Yin becomes water, and the essence of water becomes the moon. Therefore, it is possible to construct a Taiyin Dao body in Beiqu."
Lu Bing suddenly realized: "You mean that hellish place we accidentally entered before, no, that Taiyin Dao Body, was made using the Daoist techniques within the Dao Ancestor's Yin Sui?!"
Lu Bing recalled that when he fell into the Taiyin Dao Body, the Taoist priest Fang from the Ancestral Mountain had been rambling on for a long time: "The Dao Body is the realm of Daoist magic, the illusory universe. It is an illusory realm within Daoist magic, a world within the illusory realm."
It was also a prison of laws and punishments, so those imprisoned there were all people who had died unjustly.
He vaguely remembered that Master Fang also said, "In this world, there is indeed no one who has the ability to build a Daoist realm. Even the head of the Taihang Daoist Celestial Masters doesn't have that much power. But if we're talking about ancient times, or the Qin Dynasty a thousand years ago, there were many talented people and extraordinary individuals, so it's really possible. But how was that done?"
It was done using the Yin Sui, the artifact of the Dao Ancestor that contained the Daoist principles!
At that time, Lu Bing didn't quite understand, but now, putting everything together, he finally understood.
"So," Lu Bing thought for a moment, "that Taiyin Dao Body hidden at the bottom of the well in the Ghost Yamen, was it built in Beiqu when Laozi traveled west? Because the Dao Ancestor foresaw that countless injustices would occur in Beiqu?"
"Whether I foresaw this or not, nobody knows," Bai Yuan said. "But the Taiyin Dao Body was definitely not something I created."
"Didn't Ya Ren just say that the Taiyin Dao Body was constructed using Laozi's Yin Sui, and that Yin Sui was on Laozi's body..." Lu Bing immediately realized, "Could it be that Yin Sui later fell into someone else's hands? And that someone else in Bei Qu constructed the Taiyin Dao Body?"
Bai Yuan nodded: "Yes."
"How can you be so sure that this Taiyin Dao Body is not something that Lao Tzu left behind when he passed through our Beiqu region on his westward journey, observing the unusual celestial phenomena and terrain of this place, just like when he left the five thousand words of the Tao Te Ching at Hangu Pass when he went westward?"
Zhou Yaren understood. So Lu Bing wanted Laozi to leave something behind in Bei Qu, such as a Daoist body.
The Dao Body does exist, but it wasn't left behind by Lao Tzu himself. Bai Yuan was a firsthand witness to the Taiyin Dao Body, and firsthand witnesses naturally have the most authority to speak on this matter.
She asked, "When did Lao Tzu leave Hangu Pass to the west?"
Lu Bing: "The Spring and Autumn Period... is it over? We don't know the specifics."
Bai Yuan said, "The Taiyin Dao Body of Bei Qu was acquired after the Qin Dynasty unified China. Several hundred years have passed since then, and the Yin Sui has long since changed hands."
Zhou Yaren seized the opportunity to ask, "So, do you think the Yin Sui fell into the hands of those sorcerers or the Gu masters?"
Bai Yuan looked at him silently.
Zhou Yaren met his gaze: "Have you seen that person before?"
Lu Bing felt like he was suddenly falling behind. Why was he getting confused again? He didn't want the topic to jump around too much: "What 'that person'? Who are you talking about?"
Zhou Yaren stared at Bai Yuan and replied, "The person who constructed the Taiyin Dao Body."
Lu Bing clicked his tongue: "Isn't that obvious? How could anyone have seen it? That was before the Qin Dynasty."
To everyone's surprise, Bai Yuan casually replied, "I've seen him before."
Caught off guard, Lu Bing was so shocked he almost snapped his neck. His large, round eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Stop talking nonsense!"
Bai Yuan gave him a nonchalant smile, a smile that sent shivers down Lu Bing's spine. He turned his face away without looking, thinking to himself: Don't smile at me, it's kind of scary.
But he said, "Well, if all else fails, how about I have Doctor He treat your face?"
Bai Yuan decisively refused: "No need."
Lu Bing gently advised, "Well, I can pay for it for you. It's not good for a woman to have so many scars on her face." It's really not good.
"You'll pay for me?"
"Didn't you save my life last night? I was thinking of repaying your kindness."
Bai Yuan understood and nodded, saying, "Alright, just pay my room fee at the inn."
Zhou Yaren: "..."
Lu Bing was a beat slow to react: "...Hey, no problem, which inn are you staying at?"
Bai Yuan was stumped by the question. The sign above the inn was not very conspicuous, and she had not paid attention to her name. She usually came and went through the window like the wind, and the innkeeper thought she never left the inn.
Zhou Yaren then answered for her: "South of the small city."
“Okay, I’ll go to Xiaocheng South in a bit,” Lu Bing scratched his head in frustration. “What’s the situation now? This case is getting more and more outrageous the more we investigate it. I thought Chen Ying was harmless on the surface, but who would have thought she was hiding so much and was secretly plotting against Yin Sui. This person is definitely not simple.”
Zhou Yaren said, "I suspect that Chen Ying is the one who planted the poison in Shen Yuanwen."
"What?" Although Lu Bing felt that Chen Ying had a big problem, he did not connect this murder case to her. He had already determined that Sun Xiuniang was the real culprit who killed the entire Shen family. Whether it was revenge or seeking justice, after all, her father was wronged in the Shen family first, and then Shen Yuanwen took advantage of her body and did nothing inhuman. No wonder Sun Xiuniang fought back against all odds.
However, Zhou Yaren suspected that Chen Ying was the murderer.
"Chen Ying is the new bride of the Shen family. What deep-seated hatred could she possibly have for her husband's family that would lead her to such a vicious act against Shen Yuanwen?" Lu Bing blurted out, then immediately recalled the extremely indecent and lewd behavior of the young master Shen. Which woman wouldn't be bothered by that? "Could it be that she was driven by jealousy and hatred? And decided to kill him?"
Zhou Yaren shook her head, saying that it was difficult to draw a conclusion without conclusive evidence.
"No, once I catch her, I'll interrogate her thoroughly..."
Zhou Yaren no longer wanted Lu Bing to get involved in this matter, and interrupted, "If it really is her, then this person is very dangerous and cannot be dealt with by the government. Lu Bing, this case is extraordinary. Since the people from Taihang Road have arrived in Beiqu, they will take full control. You don't need to interfere."
Having worked so hard on the case for so long, Lu Bing absolutely couldn't just abandon it: "How can that be..."
"You need to understand the consequences. Didn't you just suffer at her hands last night? Did she think the knife in your ribs wasn't deep enough to kill you?"
"no……"
If Bai Yuan hadn't intervened in time to save him, he would have already lost his life.
Zhou Yaren didn't give him a chance to speak at all, like a calm older brother scolding him for being ignorant: "Take this opportunity to take sick leave and go back to rest for a few days. Also, spend more time with your grandmother. Although she doesn't say it, she is worried about you every day because of this murder case in Beiqu. She can't sleep if you don't come home at night. Are you going to make her stay up with you every day at her age?"
Upon mentioning his grandmother, Lu Bing immediately became obedient, as nothing was more important than his own life. "And what about you?"
"I?"
“You should come back with me and take care of it too,” Lu Bing said. “We’ll raise it together.”
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