Chapter 20 Bamboo Slips
Jiao Xing of Feiyan Pavilion had not sent any new people until he had finished assigning everyone for this year. Su Yang did not urge them either, so everyone just got along peacefully. This time, there was only Yi Sanmei from Danxin Pavilion.
Yi Sanmei had originally imagined her so-called retreat would last no more than ten days or half a month; people would definitely emerge when they were hungry. Clearly, she had assumed her own assumptions about cultivators. Cultivators no longer needed food or sleep, relying on meditation for countless days and nights. For a senior cultivator like Taoist Hua Shen, three to five years in seclusion was considered minimal. Su Yang's reference to his master's recent retreat was referring to two years ago. This incident had truly made Yi Sanmei realize the vast difference in the time perception between cultivators and ordinary people, driving her to study even harder, to the point where Su Yang had to stop her.
"It's good to study hard, but you still have to combine work and rest." Su Yang was also helpless. After a whole year, Yi Sanmei's learning state had changed from following Su Yang blindly to chasing Su Yang and wanting to knock open his head to see for herself. After all, he was not an old scholar who specialized in teaching in the mortal world. He used to be lazy when he went to school. Even after he became an immortal, he mostly learned about cultivation methods and so on. How could he be as eager to study day and night as Yi Sanmei.
She'd mastered some simple spells, and even more terrifyingly, she was now studying ancient texts. Every time Su Yang saw her, he couldn't help but quicken his pace, fearing she'd stop him and ask what they were. How could he know? Over the past six months, Su Yang had come to see himself as Yi Sanmei's older brother. He didn't want his image to erode, so he devised a clever way to distract her.
In order to let Yi Sanmei relax and give himself a vacation, Su Yang pulled Yi Sanmei out of the room and prepared to take her to the Weird Weapon Pavilion.
"Originally, Master could only equip you with magical instruments and talismans after bestowing a name upon you, but it seems Master will need to remain in seclusion for a while longer. Now that you can use the incantations to control your magical instruments, it will be easier for you to act. I'll give these to you first. However, I went to the storeroom yesterday to take inventory as usual and found that I still had a few spare magical instruments, but the talismans were missing. I think the one the child had on him melted while refining the medicine. Right now, I'm going to the Weird Instrument Pavilion to ask True Lord Beilian to refine another one. You can try to control the magical instruments yourself and come with me."
After saying this, Su Yang waved his robe, and three magical instruments of different shapes immediately appeared in front of Yi Sanmei: one shaped like the gourd at Su Yang's waist, one that looked like a long ruler, and a scroll of bamboo slips. Su Yang gestured for Yi Sanmei to pick one to use.
Of the three instruments, Yi Sanmei was particularly drawn to the bamboo slip. She took it and channeled her spiritual energy into it, immediately noticing the pattern of light it illuminated. Over the past year, Yi Sanmei had become convinced that Su Yang, at least, couldn't discern the subtle trajectory of spiritual energy flow, and so she felt comfortable experimenting in his presence. The bamboo slip itself was unassuming, a slightly bluish-purple color with markings. Rolled up, it wasn't large, but when unfolded, one could vaguely see that it wasn't a complete instrument, with cracks along its edges. Without the gradually flowing array patterns visible, one could simply identify it as a purple wooden slip, no wonder it was mistaken for a casually used instrument.
However, Yi Sanmei noticed that the threads of light surrounding the bamboo slips looked remarkably familiar, reminding her of the two characters on Qiu Xinglun's knife that she had been deciphering for the past year. Those characters weren't from the time of Zang Yaozong, but from an even earlier era. Thinking of the knife's terrifying aura, Yi Sanmei decisively chose the bamboo slips.
"Purple wooden slips?" Su Yang thought of the pile of books and bamboo slips in Yi Sanmei's room, which were so large that people could not be seen, and smiled bitterly.
"Brother, do you know who forged this 'Purple Wooden Slip'?"
Su Yang shook his head. "The flying magic weapons refined by the sect for disciples are all in the style of light swords, with the words Zang Yao engraved on the swords. Apart from the light swords, the others were either looted from various states of Tiandao, discovered in various ruins, or refined by the disciples of Guiqi Pavilion themselves to sell in exchange for spirit stone materials. There are only a few of them. The magic weapons in our warehouse are selected by the master at Feiyan Pavilion and sent to the warehouse. If you want to know the source of the magic weapons, you can try to check the archives of Feiyan Pavilion."
"Does the sect have a library?" Third Sister Yi was holding copies of the Tao Te Ching, given to her by Su Yang. To seek the secrets of the Zang Yao Sect and improve herself, she needed to find books for cultivation. But Su Yang wasn't impressed. "If you want to read anything, you might as well go to Master's palace. Master never shys away from his disciples browsing. As for the sect's library, it's full of old historical books, not worth mentioning."
Sister Yi San nodded and stopped asking questions. She made a note to find time to visit Feiyan Pavilion and Zhaojian Palace.
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