Taibai Mountain, the former ancestral home of the Louguan Taoist sect, is located on a high platform inside the sutra exposition platform.
Two "students" are kneeling down to worship.
Everything in the venue was completely silent, and thousands of people were in silence.
The Taoist gentleman lost, the Confucian scholar Zhao Ziyu, "the theory of one source of body and function", the Lin family of Lanxi actually won, Chongxu Guan...
Everyone is still pondering and digesting it.
The applause that was originally expected after the third talk did not come. At this moment, silence is the highest respect.
But after a while, there was a sound coming from outside the Taibai Taibai, or in Luojing City outside Taibai Mountain, even though it was hundreds of miles away, it took several breaths to spread in the air, and it still made people frown and feel noisy.
.
But it further accentuated the silence in the pulpit.
Still no one spoke.
Some people swallowed, some looked at each other, some held their breath and concentrated, some shed tears, some were trembling...
Hidden under the silence at this time is a brewing storm.
There are joys and sorrows, but people's joys and sorrows are not the same. Most people are indifferent and only pursue the strong who win and abandon the weak who fail.
The first one to break the silence was still a sparse round of applause in the vast venue, coming from a certain little fox demon with red hands and an even redder face.
Su Xiaoxiao, dressed in pink, jumped and clapped, raising her head and looking intently at the profile on the stage that concerned her.
The little girl smiled happily and said in high spirits, "Win, win, Zhao Rong wins!"
The soft and melodious voice echoed in the pulpit.
"Pah, pah, pah, pah, pah!"
The next moment, thunderous applause came oncoming, overwhelming, as if it was about to overturn the entire venue and shatter the white clouds in the sky.
"We won, we won, we really won!" Lin Qingxuan murmured to himself at first, then his voice became louder and louder, tears slid down his chin, he hissed, but his voice was still drowned in the deafening vibration.
Amidst the applause.
Lin Qingxuan suddenly turned his head to look at his brother beside him. He saw that his eyes were bloodshot, his chest was heaving and his expression was dull. He moved his mouth, as if he said something, but he was drowned in the ocean of applause.
Among them, no one knows anymore.
Lin Wenruo's chest suddenly rose and fell violently, and he exhaled the turbid air in his chest. He looked at his friend on the stage who stood up after the formal ceremony, licked his dry lips, lowered his head, raised his right hand, stretched out a finger, raised it horizontally, and rubbed it.
Eye.
The next moment, the head of the Lanxi Lin family, one of the future helmsmen of the Zhongnan Mountains, slowly raised his head, revealing a pair of ancient and unrippled eyes, and turned his head to look at the hundreds of Taoist priests in Chongxu Temple not far away.
.
His eyes were as calm as ever, just like the look in his eyes when a hunter who was attacked by a tiger in the deep mountains of Zhongnan finally picked up the cold blade that fell on the ground with scars all over his body, and slowly walked towards the similarly injured beast.
If we say that the interior of the sutra platform is a stormy ocean, then the place where the spectators are standing is the abyss thousands of feet away under the sea, which is dark, depressing, and trembling.
Something called fear is like an undercurrent, surging in the abyss.
Hundreds of Taoist priests in blue looked around in horror, at a loss.
Qing Yuanzi's expression was dull, and he shook his head from side to side, but his eyes were fixed on someone on the stage, his thin lips trembled, and his voice was hoarse and inaudible.
"No, no, we didn't lose, how could we lose? It's fake, it's fake, that bullshit 'Ti Yong Yi Yuan theory' is fake, it's all fake, you are all lying..."
Beside him, there was a figure that was even more shaky.
Qingjingzi's face was as pale as paper, with sweat on his face. He subconsciously stepped back, as if he wanted to stay away from the high platform that ruined Chongxuguan's millennium-old foundation.
Suddenly, a frightening chill surged from the bottom of his heart. He looked around blankly and bumped into the calm eyes of a tall Confucian scholar.
Qingjingzi trembled suddenly, and the rosary beads in her hand fell to the ground.
At this time, Zhao Rong did not know that so many things were happening in the audience. After he saluted and stood up, he just wanted to get off the stage immediately and beat up Su Xiaoxiao.
You shout so loudly that you're going to die. Are you afraid that everyone won't know that I won? Can't you just pretend to be cool?
Zhao Rong shook his head, pursed his lips tightly, swallowed the blood in his mouth, and was about to say goodbye and step down, but the Taoist gentleman in front of him suddenly spoke.
"You don't belong here."
Zhao Rong looked stern and narrowed his eyes slightly, but he felt relieved the next second because this was only half a sentence.
"You should go to Jixia Academy."
Just as Zhao Rong was about to speak, he saw Tao Yuanran make another move that baffled him.
The Taoist gentleman suddenly looked solemn, knelt down and bowed three times and kowtowed to him.
Zhao Rong's eyelids twitched and he was a little caught off guard.
At the same time, the applause on the field had stopped, but the noise that had just risen was like a wave hitting a rock and breaking into pieces.
It seemed that he was also attracted by this weird scene on the stage.
Zhao Rong glanced around, facing the awkward look, and quickly moved forward, ready to help the old man in Nanhua scarf.
But out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of the horrified look in the eyes of layman Liuyi.
That was...thrown behind him.
Zhao Rong turned around suddenly.
behind.
A strange old man was standing there.
The costumes are bizarre.
The eyes are dull.
He was looking at Zhao Rong.
Zhao Rong was shocked.
Where did this old man come from? Why was there no sound at all?
Just the next second, his breath was in vain.
Because this strange old man has no shadow under the sun!
Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine and to the back of his head.
The audience at this moment was deathly silent.
Everyone who witnessed the sudden appearance of the strange old man behind Zhao Rong looked in shock.
It's not because they don't know this strange old man, on the contrary, they are very familiar with him, and even everyone who passes by Zhongnan Mountain will recognize him.
Or from the nursery rhymes of rural children, or from the chats of people in Luojing after dinner, or from the rumors spread in the mountains, or from rushing past that cliff stone carving on a moonlit night...
"How could this existence appear here?" Lin Qingxuan said in a shocked tone, "And it's still daytime!"
Lin Wenruo next to him didn't say anything, because he didn't know why this existence that had never appeared in the daytime for thousands of years and left the cliff suddenly appeared.
He looked worriedly at Zhao Rong on the stage.
"Ancestor."
The old man in Nanhua scarf knelt down and kowtowed, then spoke in a deep voice, showing great respect.
The strange old man was still staring at Zhao Rong with a dull look on his face, his calm face was as calm as ever, and he turned a deaf ear.
call.
But Zhao Rong was slightly relieved when he heard this. It's just that it's not some inexplicable dirty thing. Wait, ancestor?
Zhao Ronggang felt relieved again.
"What is inaction, and what is inaction?"
The strange old man suddenly spoke with a confused tone, as if he was asking someone or himself.
"What?" Zhao Rong was stunned.
The strange old man did not repeat himself, but turned around and walked away.
Tao Yuanran got up and followed.
An idea flashed in Zhao Rong's mind, and he recalled the story Liu Sanbian told him when he first entered Zhongnan Mountain, about the old man carving on the cliff at the moonlit night, and recalled the "question of inaction".
The young Confucian scholar suddenly raised his head and said: "Why do nothing? The body and use come from the same source. Do nothing and do everything."
This is actually the argument he just argued in his defense.
The strange old man suddenly stopped, turned his back to Zhao Rong, and asked in confusion, but this time he only asked half a sentence.
"What is inaction?"
Zhao Rong was silent for a moment, thinking of all the things that had happened in Zhongnan Kingdom in the past few days, he stared and said seriously:
"Inaction does not mean that you are attracted but not coming, pushed but not pushed away, forced but not responded to, touched but not moved, stagnant but not flowing, curled but not scattered."
"It is said that his private ambitions are not righteous, he is greedy but not in vain, he does things according to reason, he achieves merit because of his talents, he achieves things without losing his body, and he achieves merits but has no reputation."
As soon as he said this, the strange old man fell silent.
For a moment, no one on the field spoke, everyone was silently watching this rare scene in a thousand years.
"...Achievements are achieved without losing one's body; achievements are accomplished without being famous." A tall Confucian scholar thought silently in his heart, his eyes twinkling.
He understood somewhat, and this was also a sincere warning given to him by his good friend.
In the eyes of his good friend, the true Taoist "inaction" does not mean doing nothing and letting everything go. Just like the Zhongnan Kingdom under the control of Chongxu Guan before today, the monks and hermits were obsessed with the mountains and rivers and admired them.
It's called "inaction".
And it is not as tough, no room for mercy, and cruel methods as when he implemented the new law before.
Rather, it is about doing things without selfishness, having desires and not going astray, following rules, relying on ability to accomplish things, accomplishing things without harming oneself, and performing meritorious deeds without seeking reputation.
In short, "doing nothing" means not doing anything that goes against the natural way. Only in this way can we "do everything", that is, everything we do is in compliance with the natural way.
Qi Changru sighed.
I don’t know how long it has passed, it could be just a moment, or it could be eternity.
The strange old man, who had no shadow under the sun, tilted his head slightly downward.
"good."
This is the ninth word besides the "question of inaction" that the strange old man has said for thousands of years.
Zhao Rong pursed his lips.
There were horrifying sounds coming from all directions.
In front of my eyes, I saw the strange old man's hands that were closed in his sleeves, suddenly separated, and he stretched out his withered right hand, which was as clear as jade, and gently grabbed it in a certain direction in the air beside him.
There seemed to be an earthquake in the distance.
There was a slight vibration on the high platform.
The sound of cracking mountains and cracking rocks was immediately followed.
The next moment, from the horizon, two rays of purple energy came from the south.
Like the tail of a meteor comet, it "collides" into the preaching platform.
The strange old man folded his hands again, turned around and stepped forward, but his body suddenly melted into a crystal light spot from top to bottom. After three steps, only a cluster of starlight remained in the air.
Tao Yuanran raised his hand and took the fragment of the projection of the ancestor of the Tao family, who was the first deputy headmaster of the Louguan Taoist Sect, into his palm. He turned his head and glanced at Zhao Rong, then left in the air and continued northward.
Zhao Rong was alone on the high platform.
Oh, by the way, there are also two purple auras beside him.
Like a living thing.
PS: The next two updates will be later...it’s better not to wait.