Pawn Crossing the River

After passing the main gate, you have truly entered the upper palace.

The main entrance is connected to a long straight bridge as wide as the steps outside, with railings half a person's height on both sides. Looking from the railing, under the bridge are continuous roofs and tree canopies, as well as roads like a chessboard. You can see people walking among them, which is the lower palace.

From a visual inspection, the bridge is about nine feet high. If you have been to the Shang Palace, it is really impossible to go up.

Taoism is about equality, at least on the surface, so the upper and lower palaces of the Wanxiang Taoist Palace do not refer to the level of status, but the actual position in the literal sense - the upper palace is built at a high place, so It is named Shanggong, while the Lower Palace is built on flat ground, so it is named Lower Palace. It is very straightforward and simple, with no profound meaning.

Qi Xuansu could only stand and feel in the past, but Zhang Yuelu couldn't understand the many emotions.

Zhang Yuelu's mood was more about revisiting her old place, but she had just left for a few years, and there really wasn't much change here.

At the end of the bridge is the main building of Wanxiang Taoist Palace, Mingtang. It is three hundred feet high, three hundred feet from north to south and three hundred feet from east to west. It has three floors in total: the four sides of the lower floor correspond to the four seasons, namely spring, summer, autumn and winter; the middle floor is dedicated to the twelve hours, and the top is a round cover held by nine dragons; the upper floor is dedicated to the twenty-four solar terms. It is also a round cover with a golden phoenix on it, one foot high. In the middle of the Mingtang, there is a huge wooden central stake, which serves as the main trunk on which the Dougong beams are attached. It runs up and down and signals everything.

From the earliest Wanxiang Shrine of Empress Mingkong, to the Wanxiang Academy of Confucianism, to today's Wanxiang Taoist Palace, various peripheral buildings have been changing, but Mingtang has never changed. Just stand in Longmen Mansion and watch the vicissitudes of the world. . Many heroes have come and gone, and eventually they all disappeared.

Qi Xuansu looked at the bright hall on the other side of the long bridge and was speechless for a long time. Although he has looked at the Mingtang countless times, this is the first time he has seen it from the front. Just like a beautiful woman, Qi Xuansu has seen her back many times and her profile many times, but she has never seen her face. This time, she got her wish.

Zhang Yuelu also stopped to admire it for a moment. Due to the Wanxiang Dao Palace's "dare not to be the first for the world", she could not come here often. It was now the semester break, so she could come in. After June 15th, this place would be closed, so she could only She was waiting outside, so she didn't have many chances to see Mingtang. It was no exaggeration to say that she had more chances to go to Jinque than to Mingtang.

Zhang Yuelu said: "When I came here last time, I happened to meet Yan Mingchen who also came to study. Do you still remember this person?"

"Of course I remember, he was shot by me in Yunjin Mountain." Qi Xuansu made a musket-firing gesture, "Since Xuan Sheng revitalized the Taoist sect, five of the six generations of Celestial Masters came from the Zhang family. The only Celestial Master with a different surname is Yan, you are considered a family friend."

Zhang Yuelu continued: "I don't have any thoughts about Yan Mingchen. Due to the friendship between the two families for many years, I just treat him as an ordinary friend. But somehow my mother found out about it and started planning a marriage. After all, I was not married at that time. Being recognized as a successor by the master, his importance in the Taoist sect is far less than it is now. If it were me now, my mother would never agree, so she is very grateful to you, so that she will not have to think of ways to get rid of Yan Mingchen. "

Qi Xuansu wanted to make a few taunts, but suddenly felt something was wrong. He swallowed back the words he blurted out and asked carefully: "Qingxiao, what do you want to say?"

Zhang Yuelu glanced at him and said with a half-smile: "I want to say that in the next three months, you should not mess around with women and keep yourself clean."

Qi Xuansu said sadly: "Qingxiao, how can you not believe me?"

"Of course I believe you." Zhang Yuelu said calmly, "I just want to remind you that many people were interested in my identity at the beginning. Even if I was not easy to get along with, they still insisted on getting close to me. They did not care about their intentions. You know. The same thing applies to you. Even if you do nothing, you will attract people. In the past, it was okay, and only the fourth-level wine priests came here to study. , most of them are elderly, but this time they include fifth-grade candidate sacrificial wine and sixth-grade preparatory sacrificial wine. There are many young women here. They are also excellent, but they are inferior compared to you. Far away, it's reasonable to want to have something happen with you, whether you can't control it yourself or you're being tricked by someone else, all you need to do is cook the rice before the woman uses it as a threat to make things worse. , either your reputation will be ruined, or you will become a Taoist couple with that woman."

Qi Xuansu looked solemn.

This is not unfounded worry, but something that is actually possible.

If you can become a sixth-grade Taoist priest before the age of thirty, you will be included in the ranks of "preparing for sacrificial wine" by the Taoist sect. If you can become a fifth-grade Taoist priest before the age of thirty-five, you will be listed as a "candidate for sacrificial wine" by the Taoist sect.

In other words, there are quite a few people who are twenty-seven or seventy-eight years old, and candidates who are thirty-two or thirty-year-old. They have a bright future in the eyes of others, but they can't compete with Qi Xuansu, a fourth-grade wine sacrificer who is under thirty years old. Compared with the wine Taoist priest, it is far behind. Even if they are the same age as Qi Xuansu, there is still a huge gap between them, and few people can be promoted like Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu.

Just as many people think that Qi Xuansu relies on being a pretty girl for Zhang Yuelu, many women don't mind dedicating themselves to Qi Xuansu for their future, and even seek to become the wife of a young and handsome man, which is much faster than slowly climbing the ladder on their own.

The so-called changing one's destiny by getting married is still the dream of many women. They do not want to marry a certain man, but to marry a powerful person.

And the moral requirements of Taoism make it difficult for men to start chaos and give up. As long as a woman makes things big, except for powerful people like Li Tianzhen, most people can only choose to submit, otherwise they will be ruined.

If Qi Xuansu wants to flirt with someone, once he gets stuck, even if he doesn't die, he will still have to shed a layer of his skin. In the end, it may be that the future is gone, and Zhang Yuelu becomes a stranger to him.

This is no joke.

Qi Xuansu tightened his collar: "I never thought that I, Qi, would become a hottie one day. It seems that I have to be more careful and keep this pure and pure body for my Tantai girl."

Zhang Yuelu heard what he said becoming more and more outrageous, and couldn't help laughing and scolding: "I noticed that you are getting bolder and bolder. When you used to talk to me, you behaved like a quail, with your neck tucked up. Now you are like a quail." A golden pheasant, it just wants to flutter its wings and tail, but it still wants to fly to my head and make a nest. "

Qi Xuansu said plausibly: "The best hunters often appear in the form of prey. If I don't shrink back and stay low, how can I lure this big fish like you to take the bait?"

Zhang Yuelu just smiled and didn't agree with him.

If Qi Xuansu had dared to speak so frivolously when the two of them first met, she would have been disgusted. However, after experiencing so many ups and downs, the two of them knew each other and it was different. Not only would she not be angry, but she would also be angry. Will enjoy it.

Furthermore, despite Qi Xuansu speaking now as if he had premeditated it, Zhang Yuelu is not blind. When the two first met, Qi Xuansu had no plans at all. She was more proactive, but she didn't want to expose him.

While talking, the two walked across the more than three hundred feet long flying bridge and arrived in front of the Mingtang.

At this time, the door was open, and you could see inside. The place where the dragon chair was originally placed was no longer there. First, a statue of a saint was placed by someone from the Confucian sect. Later, the Taoist sect took the statue of the Confucian saint out and replaced it with a statue of a saint. The statue of Taishang Daozu.

In addition, the Daomen has also been remodeled to a certain extent. In addition to the original main entrance, the other three directions have also opened their doors to connect different areas, making the hall here become a place similar to a transit place.

Zhang Yuelu said: "Pei Zhenren said that the so-called advanced training is actually just a formality, which is not wrong. Many things do not make much sense. They are nothing more than finding some knowledgeable old Taoist priests to teach a group of young Taoist priests. The content is somewhat similar to Confucianism. Loyalty and filial piety means teaching you to be loyal to the Taoist sect, but how can those children from aristocratic families listen to it? As for you... your problem is not here. You came from the lower palace of Wanxiang Taoist Palace. After more than ten years of nurturing, for The sense of belonging to the Taoist sect is very strong, and the feelings for the Taoist sect are still deep, but I just don’t care about various rules and some high-quality Taoist priests.”

Qi Xuansu coughed lightly and had to admit that Zhang Yuelu was still accurate in reading people. If he doesn't have a sense of identity and belonging to Taoism, then he won't try his best to escape from the Qingping Society. However, certain things done by some people within the Taoist sect, such as Shen Yuxi and others, and the Jiangnan case, are really disappointing.

Zhang Yuelu led him to a signing room located in the southwest corner, which was responsible for registration. Qi Xuansu showed the ultimatum and the piece of ivy paper given by Pei Xiaolou, and received a jade pendant. It was not worth much and was mainly used for proof. Identity and residence access control must be handed in when leaving.

Then Zhang Yuelu took Qi Xuansu and left the Mingtang through the east gate. The east gate was also connected to a flying bridge. This flying bridge was much shorter. At the end of the bridge was a continuous courtyard, like a castle in the air.

In fact, when viewed from above, the entire Wanxiang Taoist Palace looks like three "kou" words nested together, that is, there is another "kou" outside the word "hui". The innermost "small mouth" is Mingtang, which wraps Mingtang. The "middle entrance" is the upper palace, which is connected to the second floor of the Mingtang by a bridge. The outermost "big mouth" is the lower palace. Because it is not a suspended building, a bridge is omitted and is directly connected to the first floor of the Mingtang.

Because of this, if viewed from the front, the Wanxiang Dao Palace looks like a mountain divided into three levels.

This area is the place where they live daily. As a fourth-grade Taoist priest, Qi Xuansu certainly does not have several people crowded into one room like in the lower palace in the past, nor does he have to have only one room like the sixth-grade Taoist priests and fifth-grade Taoist priests. He finally lived in a suite. There was a small courtyard outside. In addition to the bedroom, it also had a study room and a living room. It could be said to be quite good.