April of the first year of Tianxi

As the intersection of the north and south of the Dayu Dynasty, Chuzhou was a place where the south was a boat and the north was a horse. Its economy and culture were all extraordinary. It has been a geomantic treasure land for Zhong Lin Yuxiu since ancient times.

In the nearly 400 years since the founding of the Dayu Dynasty, Chuzhou has seen numerous talented people leading the way, making it a gathering place for the Dayu culture.

Although the cultural spirit of Chuzhou is booming, with academies and teaching buildings lined up in rows, and talents like crucian carp crossing the river, scholars all over the world only recognize "Wenyang" as the ancestral home of Confucianism in the world.

Scholars all believe that water and soil nourish a person's spirit.

The wind and sand in the north have sharpened the heroic spirit of the north, while the mist and rain in the south have also soaked in the elegance of the south.

Chuzhou, which is located at the intersection of north and south, has more or less philistine temperament among local scholars due to its prosperous commerce.

Therefore, both the southern and northern factions in the Dayu officialdom were more or less less close to Chuzhou officials.

Therefore, the officials of Chuzhou generally formed their own group like the officials of Andong Road and Longyou Road.

However, compared to the slightly discriminatory attitude of Confucianism towards Chuzhou, Taoism, as a southern spiritual belief, has a deep-rooted influence in Chuzhou.

Since the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Taoism has been spreading its religion in the south subtly for nearly a thousand years. During the changes of Han, Wei, and Jin dynasties, many branch sects have also evolved.

There are more than a dozen different branches of Taoism in Chuzhou.

But among them, only the Tianyi sect and the Lingyu sect were considered orthodox by the Dayu royal family.

Chuzhou is officially the ancestral home of Lingyu Sect.

The ancestral court of Lingyu Sect lives on the bank of Taize, occupying a total of fifty peaks. The fifty peaks are spread out with the two main peaks in the center as the center of the circle. If viewed from above, it looks like a natural Tai Chi diagram.

On top of each mountain peak are pavilions and palaces, with winding corridors. Whenever the clouds and mist rise, Taoists walking on the mountain corridors are looming, just like a fairyland on earth.

At dawn and dusk, there are always dense aromas and low sounds of prayer floating in the mountains. These prayers seem to have magical power to wash away all the mundane air in these mountains.

But among these mountains, there is a small peak with only four or five bamboo houses. There are also small acres of land on the top of the mountain, and there are patches of bamboo forest at the bottom of the mountain.

Compared with the fifty Lingyu Mountain Peaks that look like a fairyland, this place seems to be a rough human realm.

But this incompatible mountain peak is like a nail stuck between these fifty peaks.

In a bamboo hut on the mountain peak, a middle-aged man in a Taoist robe was stroking the beard on his chin with one hand and taking the pulse of a sleeping child on the bamboo bed with the other.

This man has a Ziwu bun on his head, and his temples are a bit gray, but his facial features are extremely regular, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and a nose that looks like a hanging gallbladder.

It's just that he has a shabby shave on the bridge of his tall nose, which looks a little bit abrupt.

His brows were furrowed, looking thoughtful.

The child on the bamboo bed now had a discolored face, chapped lips, and the two horns on his head were completely messed up, looking unkempt.

His smaller body was covered with a piece of clothing that had been completely torn into silk strips. It was covered with dirt and patches and the original material and color could not be seen clearly.

At this time, a person pushed open the bamboo door, holding a bamboo tray in his hand. On the tray were a bowl of cooked porridge and two wheat bran pancakes.

"Dad, can you please stop torturing this child? Do you know medical skills?"

People who came in couldn't help but remind him when they saw the middle-aged man in Taoist robes putting his hand on the child's wrist and looking at him carefully.

"You kid knows nothing! Don't think that that old Niubi from the Lingyu sect has taught you something, so you can just pretend to be stupid in front of me."

The middle-aged man in Taoist robes let go of the child's hand and lectured his son with disdain.

It's just that his tone and demeanor don't sound like a Taoist sage, but rather like a rogue in the market.

"Dad, you said that you wear a Taoist robe and claim to be a member of the Taoist sect, but you open your mouth all day long and have a bad breath. This is disrespectful to the Taoist sect. If the Sanqing Saints find out, they will have to punish you!"

"You know nothing! If there really is a Taoist Sanqing, your father and I will have to ask them why they punish me like this."

The middle-aged Taoist flicked his sleeves and turned around to lie down on a bamboo lounge chair.

The Taoist's son shook his head helplessly, placed the tray on the bamboo table beside the bed, and carefully stirred the bowl of thick porridge, the steam rising continuously.

"Yu'er! I don't think this guy's appearance is that of a young man who died young, and I feel that he and I have a master-disciple relationship."

The middle-aged Taoist kept twirling his fingers and frowned slightly.

"Dad, you are being unkind. I am your biological son, but you didn't accept me as your disciple. Instead, you asked me to become a disciple of Lingyu Sect. Now you want to accept this orphan from Sizhou as your disciple?"

The Taoist didn't answer, but looked sadly at his son sitting by the bed stirring the porridge bowl.

The Taoist's son is actually only fourteen or fifteen years old. He has red lips and white teeth, but he has the appearance of a boy and a girl. Compared with the Taoist's angular face, his face is much softer.

Moreover, his limbs are long and slender, his body is somewhat thin, and he wears a loose robe, which naturally exudes an extraordinary and elegant temperament.

"I've calculated it for you. Your destiny in this life is to be the head of the Lingyu Sect. What I have in my belly is not suitable for you."

The Taoist rocked the rocking chair gently, looking content and contented.

"Dad, I am your biological son, can you please stop fooling me! I still don't know about your tricks of deception."

The Taoist's son pouted and put his hand on the child's wrist.

"Hey, I said you are just a young boy. Your father and I are really talented and learned. How can you be considered a swindler?"

The Taoist sat up from the recliner, extremely dissatisfied with his son's statement.

"Let's just talk about our Guigu Mountain. I remember my mother secretly told me when I was young that you won it in a bet with the head master."

The boy who was called Yu'er didn't take it seriously.

"Doesn't this prove that your father and I are truly talented?" the Taoist said, stroking his beard proudly.

"Come on, mother said back then that you cheated and became a cheat when you made a bet with the head master." The young man snickered.

"What do you know? I can only say that my father is very witty, and Yu Zhenzi is a fool. Otherwise, Taoist monks would be better than those scholars in the court!" The Taoist lay back on the recliner happily.

"That's because our Taoist sect needs Wuwei. The purpose of the Confucian sect is to cultivate one's moral character, regulate one's family, govern the country, and bring peace to the world. The court is naturally the home of the Confucian sect. This is not the ambition of our Taoist sect."

The young man pulled out a bamboo pole next to the bed, shook it a few times, and the end of the bamboo bed began to slowly lift.

The child on the bed also changed to a half-lying position, but he was not awake yet.

"Bullshit, these stinky Taoist priests do all kinds of things that are not their proper job."

The Taoist looked like he hated iron but could not turn it into steel.

"Why don't you just refine elixirs more, write Qing Ci, and get the upper echelons of the imperial court? Then you can do more superstitious activities and burn talisman paper to expand the mass base."

"Dad, you'd better look at the top of your head. I'm afraid that the Sanqing Saint will really strike you with thunder."

The young man ignored his father's crazy words. He took out a pack of acupuncture needles from the pouch on his waist and carefully inserted the needles into each of the child's acupuncture points.

"What a fright, I haven't been struck by lightning before."

The Taoist murmured as loudly as a mosquito, but his son did not hear his words.

"What's the situation outside the mountain now?"

"Hey, thieves are everywhere outside the mountains and people are displaced. It is said that people in Puzhou in the north have begun to organize and openly resist the imperial court."

As the boy's needle continued to twist, the child on the bed began to frown, and beads of sweat began to seep out from the sallow skin.

"It's almost over. The reincarnation of heaven has begun again. The prosperous age of this era is coming to an end. God's murderous intention does not know how many innocent people will die in vain in this calamity."

The Taoist sighed and shook the bamboo chair helplessly.

"Dad, do you mean troubled times are coming?"

Although the young man was surprised, he did not stop holding the needle in his hand.

"Since ancient times, dynasties have changed. There are traces and rules that can be checked. Today, my father can talk to you carefully. In the future, when I become the headmaster of Lingyu, I can also use it to fool your disciples. There will definitely be extraordinary masters.

Human style.”

The Taoist picked up the purple clay pot on the bamboo table, took a sip, and then continued talking leisurely.

"Since the beginning of history, there have been twelve dynasties from the beginning of Xia to the present, and our Dayu Dynasty is the thirteenth unified dynasty."

"You have taught me this before, and I remember it all."

The young man's movements did not stop, but he was obviously too disappointed with what the Taoist said.

The Taoist paid no attention to his son and continued to explain.

"However, the first twelve dynasties have all gone through roughly the same process during their existence. A hundred years is a small catastrophe for the change of dynasties. Those who have survived after a hundred years can continue to enjoy a hundred years of national destiny. However, three hundred years is a big limit.

, very few people in all dynasties can surpass this number.”

"Does my son still remember which dynasties there were?" the Taoist asked his son when he was enjoying himself.

"Shang, Zhou, Han and my Yu Dynasty" the young man rolled his eyes, obviously this question is very simple.

"Then do you remember the longevity of these dynasties?"

"The Xia Dynasty has enjoyed the country for 471 years, the Zhou Dynasty has enjoyed the country for 791 years, and the Han Dynasty has enjoyed the country for 407 years. As for our Yu Dynasty, it has been in the country for 394 years."

"I remember it well, but there are two mistakes in it."

The Taoist stood up and pulled out a black wooden board from under the bamboo table, then hung the template on the bamboo wall, and casually pulled out a white strip from the bottom of the wooden board.

"The Yu Dynasty was interrupted like the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty was divided into the east and the west, and the Yu Dynasty was divided into the north and the south. Between the East and the West, there were fifteen years of pseudo-emperorship and two years of warlord warfare. Therefore, the Han Dynasty only had 385 years.

.”

The Taoist wrote on the template the duration of the four dynasties: Xia, Zhou, Han, and Yu.
To be continued...