Chapter 44: Daily Life in the Taoist Temple

The elders had left, and Qiu Qianren came; Qiu Qianren left, and the man in black came; the man in black left...

This time, no one came. After completing the morning devotions the next day, the inner and outer gate disciples practicing martial arts in the morning saw their new generation of the "Seven Masters of Quanzhen" tidying up the martial arts training ground, refilling the floor tiles, and repairing the roof...

Regarding this, Fang Zhiqi was somewhat reluctant: "Why should we do this kind of work ourselves? Wouldn't it be fine to find a few outer gate disciples to do it?"

"Senior Brother Fang, anyway, we don't have much to do this morning, and our mental cultivation methods have already reached the state of circulating on their own. Doing chores makes no actual difference, so why bother taking up the martial arts practice time of those disciples?"

Yin Zhiping said as he wedged a floor tile into a crack!

With two muffled thudding sounds, Cui Zhifang, who was compacting the ground with his palm force not far away, also said: "Senior Brother Yin is right. If not for this, how could we have known that martial arts could be used in this way!"

After saying that, with another two thuds, his palms carrying inner Qi struck the ground!

Chen Zhiyi also nodded and said, "Makes sense. If we don't integrate martial arts into daily life, how can we speak of walking, standing, sitting, and lying all being forms of practice? However, I haven't figured out how to use my martial arts to mix mud yet. Once you guys figure it out, let me know..."

Qiu Zhiqing was repairing the roof, replacing the tiles damaged by that man in black yesterday, when a disciple came to report: "Senior Brother Qiu! Senior Brother Qiu, you'd better go take a look at the temple gate, that Leader Qiu from yesterday is here again!"

Hearing this, Qiu Zhiqing paused. Damn it, he dares to come back! Did you really think I wouldn't recognize you just because you wore a mask?

"Understood, you go ahead and get busy..." By the time the reporting disciple finished hearing these words, Qiu Zhiqing had already vanished. I wonder when I will also be able to possess such prowess as Senior Brother, the disciple thought to himself.

When Qiu Zhiqing arrived, Fang Zhiqi and the others were holding tools and confronting Qiu Qianren! Several of them were holding floor tiles, which served as short weapons. Only Chen Zhiyi held the sole long weapon in his hand—a shovel!

Seeing Qiu Zhiqing approach carrying a roof tile, they were all speechless. Qiu Zhiqing felt even more disdainful: What kind of people are you? Someone comes knocking on your door to pick a fight, yet you're holding floor tiles, are you joking? He completely forgot that he was holding a tile in his hand...

"I wonder what brings Leader Qiu here on such a grand visit, please forgive us for not welcoming you from afar. What is this? Weren't the answers given to you by us junior brothers last night explicit enough?"

"Little Daoist priest, you must be muddled from sleeping too much! This leader also visited in the morning yesterday, when was there ever any talk of last night?" Qiu Qianren was unbothered by Qiu Zhiqing's sarcasm, evidently holding the attitude that even if you knew, there was nothing you could do to him!

The rules of this era were just like this: when someone uprightly came to challenge the sect, unless they proposed a spar, you could not make the first move against them unless there was some deep, irreconcilable hatred.

However, strictly speaking, they truly did not have any deep hatred between them...

"Leader Qiu really has a noble and forgetful mind. Coupled with the Xiangyang Prefecture Office four years ago, last night was our second encounter, right? Back then, Leader Qiu was quite imposing!"

Previously, he always felt that this Qiu Qianren looked familiar, until he exchanged a palm strike with that man in black yesterday. That familiar palm force, as hard as iron and steel, rushing straight at him—it had given him quite a hard time back then! If Meng Gong hadn't arrived in time, he would have lost a layer of skin even if he survived!

At this time, Qiu Qianren also remembered. That was after he took orders to defect to the Jin Dynasty, the first time he accomplished a major task for the Jin people, escorting a batch of Lin'an "specialties" to Fengxiang Road in the Jin Dynasty.

That batch of "specialties" was seized by Zhao Fang, the Prefect of Xiangyang, and he was requested to go to the prefectural office to let the hardworking Prefect Zhao rest for a few days. He hadn't expected to encounter two very interesting youths in the Xiangyang Prefecture Office, and one of them was this little Daoist priest!

Moreover, that prefect himself turned out to be an adept martial artist, and this little Daoist almost ruined his good deed. Fortunately, that prefect was sufficiently pedantic, which allowed him to calmly land a palm strike!

As it turned out, they were old acquaintances! He heard that Prefect Zhao went to meet their Master Confucius the very next year, so he could consider it accumulating virtue and doing good deeds. However, those things were done by the man in black in the night; what did it have to do with Qiu Qianren standing in the sunshine?

Scanning the surroundings, he still didn't see the person he wanted to see. Qiu Qianren felt somewhat helpless; he hadn't even managed to see anyone last night before his whereabouts were exposed by this little Daoist priest. He was truly pressed for time, so it seemed he could only discuss this another day!

"Since the Quanzhen Sect does not welcome this leader, I should not linger. Your attitudes are also very clear; this time the letter has been delivered, and the reply has been obtained. The green hills remain, the green waters flow on, let us part ways here!" With that, he cupped his fists in a salute!

The junior brothers looked at each other in dismay, having no idea what he was playing at. But since he wasn't here to cause destruction, then so be it!

Thus, the junior brothers—some holding bricks, some holding tiles, and one holding a shovel—saluted together and said, "Infinite Life and Boundless Heavenly Venerate, safe journey, Leader Qiu, we won't see you out!"

Looking at this group of fellows holding random items and saluting him, they looked much more like masons than Daoist disciples. Qiu Qianren gave a cold snort: "Simply disgraceful to refinement!" With a flick of his sleeves, he departed...

Among them, Fang Zhiqi was rather lively. Watching Qiu Qianren's receding figure, he said with dissatisfaction: "A pig's snout stuffed with scallions—pretending to be an elephant! With hands as big as a pig's trotters, does he even know how to write the two words 'refinement'?"

Chen Zhiyi was rather rigorous by nature, which was why Qiu Zhiqing put him in charge of the Daoist Records Pavilion. Hearing Fang Zhiqi's words, he retorted: "Refined or not, that's a concept from the Confucian school. Although we advocate the unity of the three teachings, what we want is to take the essence and discard the dregs..."

"Senior Brother is right, being refined is the Dao, and being unrefined is also the Dao! I cultivate my own Dao, and as for someone like him who roasts chestnuts, does he know his 'Zhi', 'Hu', or 'Zai'? He knows nothing..."

"Hahaha~~~" Wang Zhijin's remark provoked a burst of loud laughter from everyone, and afterwards, they each returned to continue their work...

Speaking of this "roasting chestnuts," Yin Zhiping had just mentioned it to them while they were laying the floor tiles. It was said that when the leader of the Iron Palm帮 practiced his Heaven-shaking Iron Palm, he needed to use a large wok filled with sand, with a fierce fire burning underneath.

Once the sand was heated, he would continuously stir-fry the sand with both hands. At this point, Fang Zhiqi chimed in: "Isn't that pretty much the same as roasting chestnuts?"

Not long after they finished discussing this topic, Qiu Qianren came to challenge the sect, making them worry that they had been overheard gossiping about him behind his back. Therefore, one must still maintain self-discipline and uprightness, and speak less behind people's backs...

Over here, the junior brothers returned to work chatting and laughing; over there, Qiu Qianren walked out of the Chongyang Palace gate. He looked back three times with every step, and by the time he reached the mountain gate, still no one had come up to find him. Helplessly, he mounted his horse and headed north to rendezvous with Wanyan Honglie...

Qiu Zhiqing, who had returned to fixing the roof, always felt there was something fishy about all this. Whether it was sneaking into Chongyang Palace last night or Qiu Qianren's revisit today, for some reason, Qiu Zhiqing had an intuition—Qiu Qianren wasn't here for the seven of them!

He shook his head, casting these baffling thoughts and doubts out of his mind, and plunged back into his grand enterprise of masonry...

Slowly, the disciples in Chongyang Palace also grew accustomed to the leadership team composed of Qiu Zhiqing and the other six, plus twelve deputies...

Initially, some wandering Taoist travelers staying at the temple held somewhat dismissive views of these third-generation Quanzhen disciples. However, after engaging in several rounds of Daoist discourse following their stay, they were astonished: these third-generation Quanzhen disciples were not only well-versed in Daoist classics, but each also excelled in their own unique ways!

Ever since Qiu Zhiqing assigned two deputies to each of the other six, they all found themselves with much more free time. Whenever they had nothing to do, everyone simply gathered in the Scripture Pavilion to discuss martial arts and the Dao.

During the half year since their senior masters left the mountain, they had made tremendous progress in both martial arts and Daoist studies. Among them, Fang Zhiqi and Yin Zhiping had actually attained enlightenment, beginning to introspect inwardly and initiate fine-tuning of the "Purple Mist Skill"!

At this moment, they also gained a preliminary understanding of the phrase: "The Dao that can be told of is not the eternal Dao!"

Some things, when spoken from another's lips, are impossible for oneself to truly comprehend and understand no matter what. Yet once their realms reached that level, or once they had experienced it themselves, everything became crystal clear in their minds...

At this moment, a disciple holding a letter walked into the Scripture Pavilion: "Greetings, Senior Brothers! Peace be upon you, Senior Brothers."

"Infinite Life, peace be upon you, Junior Brother! The magpies chirp away, as the common saying goes, they announce good news! I suppose Junior Brother has brought us some good news..." Shen Zhiyan at the entrance greeted him, his words drawing the gaze of everyone else.

The disciple smiled, handed the letter to Shen Zhiyan with both hands, and smiled: "Senior Brother Shen will understand at a glance, this junior brother will take his leave first!"

"Farewell!"

Seeing that the disciple had walked far away, Shen Zhiyan looked at the envelope and said to Yin Zhiping, "Senior Brother Yin, this is sent to you by Senior Uncle Qiu!"

Yin Zhiping took it, saw "Personally opened by Zhiping" written on the envelope, and opening it, smiled: "It is indeed a letter written by my master."

"Zhiping, my disciple, see this letter as if seeing me!..."

Before long, Yin Zhiping finished reading the letter and let out a light sigh. Qiu Zhiqing asked with concern, "Could it be that Senior Uncle Qiu has encountered some difficulties?"

"That's not it, it's just that Master is heading to the grasslands to meet Genghis Khan, but he only took Junior Brother Zhichang with him, and he's worried about a lack of care along the journey..."

Regarding Yin Zhiping's worry, Wang Zhijin made a fair point: "Senior Brother Yin, please forgive my bluntness, but I think Li Zhichang is much better at taking care of people than you!"

Yin Zhiping: "..."