The Empress's First Running Dog

Chapter 84: "Tao Sheng Yi" from Another World

Waiting for the right person... Outside the soup and noodle shop, Zhao Duan narrowed his eyes.

He looked through the bowl of steaming soup on the table, emitting white vapor, and carefully examined the uninvited guest.

Make sure you've never seen it.

His body's instinct reminded him that the old man in front of him was no simple man, but he did not feel any hostility.

"May I ask your name, sir?"

Zhao Duan understood that there were many masters in the capital, and the officialdom was only a small part of the world.

Zhang Yan smiled and shook his head:

"I am not well-known, I am just an official in the Tianshi Mansion."

Tianshi Mansion!
Zhao Duan was stunned. Is this mysterious and sneaky Lao Deng the sorcerer from the Tianshi Mansion?

As for the word "Sanguan", he had heard of it.

In the Tianshi Mansion, priests are divided into two categories:
One type is the "deacon priest", that is, responsible for the daily operation of the Tianshi Mansion and many practical affairs.

Another category is the "Sanguan", that is, priests who only focus on practice and do not hold any other duties.

The latter often have higher cultivation levels. Although they have no power, they have high status. Jin Jian is considered a "casual official."

"I don't have much contact with the Tianshi Mansion, so I don't know what your purpose is, sir?" Zhao Duan wondered.

Zhang Yan looked at him with interest and said:

"I happened to hear Priest Zhu Dian mention that there was a warrior born with a strong soul in the capital. It just so happens that the path I am taking has high requirements for the soul, so I came to take a look."

It was indeed Jin Jian, who liked to hide and peek, and was also a big mouth... Zhao Duan was stunned for a moment, and said with a strange look on his face:

"What do you mean, sir? You are not here to recruit a disciple, are you?"

He used a teasing tone when saying the second half of the sentence.

But Zhang Yanyi just smiled and looked at him quietly.

"..." Zhao Duan's teasing expression gradually subsided, and his face became more and more strange:
"Are you serious sir?"

Zhang Yan smiled and said, "Isn't it right to find a good candidate and want to recruit him?"

No... This is not a question of whether it is right or not. You are openly trying to steal from the royal family... And, how can you be so careless? Just because someone mentioned it, they came?

Zhao Duan was too tired to complain, and soon realized that this seemed to be the style of a "scattered official".

As the "orthodox national religion", Tianshi Temple has extremely strict admission requirements. It is okay for deacons and priests, but "casual officials" rarely accept disciples.

For example, the legendary "Zhang Tianshi" lived for hundreds of years, but only had six disciples.

The Shenlong Temple is similar.

Therefore, when they learn that a spiritual genius has been born somewhere, the priests of the Tianshi Mansion and the monks of the Shenlong Temple will compete to grab him.

It's like Tsinghua University and Peking University competing for the top scorer in the college entrance examination...

The more powerful the monk is, the less he abides by the etiquette of the world and the more unconventional his style of behavior is.

“Thank you for your appreciation, old sir. However, I have already joined the royal family and inherited the martial arts legacy of Emperor Taizu.” Zhao Duan declined.

Zhang Yanyi is full of domineering spirit:

"Great Ancestor Dayu has been dead for many years. What can he teach you? Wouldn't it be a hundred times better to become my disciple and be taught in person than to visualize some crappy painting?"

Oh shit... Zhao Duan almost broke out in a cold sweat. Are all the priests in the Tianshi Mansion so willful?

You dare to say anything?
Of course, he couldn't guess the true identity of the old man in front of him.

After all, that was too unbelievable. Zhang Tianshi was a god-like figure, and even the empress admired him highly.

He is the most powerful man in the world, whom even Yuan Li and Li Yanfu have never had the chance to see in person.

He was a land immortal who had rarely set foot on the human world a hundred years ago.

Although he has his own unique confidence as a "time traveler", at least at the moment, he does not think that he is qualified to meet Zhang Tianshi.

What's more, why did Zhang Tianshi have to stop someone in the middle of the night and ask to take him as his disciple?
I wouldn’t even dream of it!

In his opinion, the old man in front of him probably did have some status and ability in the Tianshi Mansion, and could have a say with Jin Jian.

But it is too outrageous to think that he has betrayed the royal family based on just a few words.

"Old man, be careful with your words!"

Zhao Duan glanced around to make sure the conversation was quiet enough, and said seriously:

"I am fortunate to have the saint's love and be led into the way of martial gods. I am already very satisfied. Sir, please do not mention the matter of taking me as a disciple again!"

Zhang Yan looked strange:
"Young man, don't be so quick to refuse. Why don't you ask which god I am cultivating?" "...Which one?"

The old Taoist priest with a ruddy face and narrow eyes raised his finger, dipped it in the soup bowl in front of him, and wrote two neat words on the table.

"Heavenly Way?" Zhao Duan raised his eyebrows and asked:
"Is it the one that corresponds to the 'Buddha' in the Shenlong Temple?"

In the Emperor's Tower, while chatting with the empress, he learned some secrets indirectly.

Just like when you open your third eye and observe the celestial phenomena at night, the vast blue sky above the Tianshi Mansion is the main deity of Taoism: Heavenly Dao.

According to the empress, the Heavenly Way and the World Honored One are two paths of cultivation that are no less effective than that of the "God of War".

"As far as I know, in the Tianshi Mansion, there are at least one priest who practices the Heavenly Way, if not a large number... Old sir, please don't take advantage of the juniors because they don't understand." Zhao Duan said with disdain.

He felt that the old man was just making a big fuss and trying to fool him.

Zhang Yan smiled, but did not explain and asked:

"Isn't Heaven stronger than the God of War?"

How would I know... Zhao Duan shook his head and said casually:

"The Way of Heaven may be powerful, but unfortunately, I believe in the Way of Humanity."

He mainly wanted to find a reason to make this stubborn old man give up and stop bothering him.

Zhang Yan laughed: "You are so young, but you like to brag, as if you can distinguish between the way of heaven and the way of man."

Under normal circumstances, Zhao Duan would not debate with him.

But I was drunk tonight and still a little dizzy. I was unhappy after hearing a lecture from this strange old man, so I said casually:

"What is there to be confused about? In my opinion, the way of heaven is to reduce the surplus and make up for the deficiency. The way of man is different. It reduces the deficiency to serve the surplus. Who can have surplus to serve the world? Only those who have the Tao."

This is a famous quote from Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching". Almost everyone knows the first two sentences, but the last sentence is not very famous.

In his previous life, when Zhao Duan was studying Chinese classics for his official career, he memorized Laozi's 5,000 words by heart.

At the moment, he was drunk and just said it casually without any calculation in his mind.

Unexpectedly, when these words fell into the ears of the stubborn old man, he was stunned for a moment.

The way of heaven is to reduce the surplus and replenish the deficiency... The way of man is to reduce the deficiency and serve the surplus... To serve the world, only those who have the Tao...

Zhang Yan chewed for a while and looked at the young man opposite with a little surprise.

Given his level of attainment, he certainly wouldn't be surprised by this insight.

What surprised him was that such a concise and profound sentence could come from the mouth of this drunken and mortal playboy.

Things seem to be getting interesting.

Zhang Yan had been thinking about testing himself, so he asked:

"Oh? Then according to you, what is the 'Tao'?"

Zhao Duan recited casually:
"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name...Namelessness is the beginning of heaven and earth; name is the mother of all things; therefore, one should always be free of desire in order to observe its wonders..."

Zhang Yan listened with great interest at first, but gradually, the old Taoist priest was no longer lazy and casual, and his narrow eyes slowly narrowed.

But Zhao Duan refused to recite it.

"Why don't you say anything?" Zhang Yanyi felt uncomfortable as if the chapter was interrupted.

Zhao Duan said as a matter of course: "That's all I think. That's all I have to say."

Zhang Yan thought about it and shook his head:
"What you said is too abstruse to be considered a true understanding. If you can condense it into one sentence, then you will understand it."

One sentence? Explain it in one sentence?
Zhao Duan snorted and, while still drunk, imitated the old Taoist priest, raised a finger and dipped it in the sobering soup.

Leaning against the rotten wooden table, he wrote down strokes one by one in clumsy handwriting:

"The Tao gives birth to one..."

Just as he wrote these three words, there was suddenly lightning and thunder in the clouds above the capital.

"Boom!"

The hideous spider-web-like lightning tore through the dark night.

Then, with a crackling sound, raindrops as big as beans fell down in no order.

One stroke, shocking.

……

I have something to do tomorrow, so the update may be late

Thanks to Momoo for the 100-coin reward~
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(End of this chapter)