Chapter 120: School of Taoism
Retrieving some hot water from his s.p.a.ce, Huo Zaiyuan enjoys a comfortable hot bath. When he emerges from the bathroom, he is met with a ridiculous scene.
A handsome young man clad in a navy blue military uniform is pulling on his earlobes with his hands, doing squats in the corner of the room while reciting "I"ll never kick a door open again, I really didn"t see anything" non-stop.
As for Long Zhanye? The man is currently sitting on the cosy sofa with ankles crossed, flipping through a file, expression calm as ever.
"What is this all about?" Drying his hair with a towel, Huo Zaiyuan questions as he takes a seat beside Long Zhanye.
"Disobedient children should be taught a lesson." Flipping over to another page, Long Zhanye flashes Huo Zaiyuan an affectionate smile. In his peripheral vision, he spots the squatting Zuo Hanyang stealthily trying to peek in their direction and snaps. "Do it properly! Continue!"
Huo Zaiyuan stares pityingly at the miserable soldier squatting in the corner like a naughty kindergarten child as he recalls what happened in this room moments ago. If not for Zuo Hanyang kicking the door open and barging in uninvited, by now Long Zhanye and him would have…now matter how he sees it, Zuo Hanyang did unknowingly do him a favour, so he supposes he can help the soldier a little.
"He is quite a few years older than me. If he is still a child, then what am I?"
"You"re my treasure." Long Zhanye replies promptly, glancing up from the doc.u.ment with a smile. Reaching out to wrap an arm around his slim waist, the faint smell of scented shower foam wafting from the youth"s skin is enough to lift his mood.
Long Zhanye"s words are like honey to Huo Zaiyuan. The corners of his mouth curve up into a small smile. "He was worried about you which is why he barged in without looking. It wasn"t intentional."
"That"s true. That"s true ah. Boss, I wouldn"t dare do it again." Facing the wall while being forced to squat up and down, Zuo Hanyang"s heart is moved to tears when he hears someone pleading for leniency on his behalf.
Sure enough, a beauty is a beauty. Not only is he a beauty, but he is also kindhearted.
"Since little Yuan says so, then I will let you off this once." Long Zhanye grouses without any real heat as he leans in and places a kiss on Huo Zaiyuan"s face.
"Thank you, Boss! Thank you, eldest sister-in-law!" The man sporting a pathetic expression a mere second ago instantly straightens, a bright grin on his face.
Hearing Long Zhanye relent and letting Zuo Hanyang off in the end, Huo Zaiyuan smiles, only to freeze at the words "eldest sister-in-law".
That attractive face darkens, the corners of his mouth tightening in annoyance as he wonders in his heart: Can I ask Zhanye to make this person return to squatting?
After arriving in E City, the pair of lovers who are bogged down with mental and physical fatigue obtain a safe and secure place to rest at last. Not wanting to stay up longer than absolutely necessary, Qin Jun and Li Qing are already fast asleep on the large, soft bed in the next room.
On the other hand, the other pair of lovers is still awake. Taking a hot bath to wash off grime and exhaustion, Long Zhanye checks in on Huo Zaiyuan before wandering off to take care of matters. This time, Zuo Hanyang came all the way from A City to E City is to merely act as an instructor for the technicians. Early this morning, he has already completed all he needs to do, so his afternoon is free of duties.
Hence, when Huo Zaiyuan wants to walk around the safe zone, he was pushed onto the youth as a companion slash guide.
Zuo Hanyang"s impression of Huo Zaiyuan is very good, so he is naturally willing to undertake this task his Boss gave him. With a bounce in his step, he happily follows behind Huo Zaiyuan.
Looking at this person who is two years older than him but still retaining a childish air, he is unable to make sense of how a big kid like him is able to rise up the ranks and become one of Long Zhanye"s trusted aide.
Isn"t he a little too pure and simple?
"Eldest…eh, little Yuan, here is E City"s "School of Taoism" that was established not long ago. Commander-in-chief permitted Grandfather Tian Jizi to set up this school. Right now, the master of this place is Grandfather Tian Jizi"s young disciple Jin Yuanzi. There are twenty priests and eighty-seven disciples." Zuo Hanyang explains as they stop before a simple but elegant building.
When they were strolling around the safe zone just now, they came across a mercenary squad about to leave on a scavenging mission, with the captain of the squad handing out a few talismans to the other members. Zuo Hanyang noticed Huo Zaiyuan"s gaze keeps straying back to the bunch of yellow papers, and accurately guesses the youth has some interest towards it. Thus, he decided to introduce this place to Huo Zaiyuan.
Before A City"s base issued an order for a Taoism school to be established, many people thought things like charms and talismans were a bunch of nonsense and Taoist priests were merely scammers. Once this school was built, a disciple joined a mercenary squad on their mission and left everyone flabbergasted when he used talismans and other Taoist abilities to slaughter a path through a zombie horde. From then on, everyone whose life was saved thanks to these Taoists begin to put them on a pedestral, show-casing their importance.
Now, whenever a mercernary squad prepares to venture out of the safe zone, they will not forget to purchase a few talismans beforehand from the "School of Taoism", or request a priest to join them. Of course, the fee for purchasing talismans or inviting a priest along is not a few paper notes. Money is considered junk in the apocalypse. Besides the barter system, a new business transaction system has also emerged.
Every survivor within the safe zone possesses a card which serves to represent their ident.i.ty. Besides having personal information on these access cards, these cards also acts as the individual"s bank card to store "transaction points". These points are differentiated by colour - red, blue and green. Green has the lowest value, with blue in the middle and red the highest. A thousand green points equals a blue point, and a hundred blue points equals a red point.
There are many ways to obtain transaction points. For example, exchanging goods and supplies for it, completeing daily missions in the safe zone (including sweeping, taking care of crops, patrolling, guarding the gates, etc). One can also form a mercernary squad and accept low, moderate or high risk a.s.signments outside of the safe zone and earn some corresponding points. Once the a.s.signments are completed, these points will automatically be added to the card. However, transactions will need to take place in a specially allocated building within the safe zone, which acts similar to a bank.
As Huo Zaiyuan followed the commando squad into the safe zone, he doesn"t have an ident.i.ty card on him. But he is not the least bit worried. For right this moment, the ‘School of Taoism" before his eyes is much more interesting.
The two men enter the building, one leading and one following when a few young people come out.
These individuals are clad in black, wide-sleeve robes, with a bagua symbol embriodered in the middle of the chest area using golden thread. In the center of this small group is a male wearing the same-styled robes, but this time, in red. With a soft smile on his fine face, this male is rather easy on the eyes.
"Who are you people? If you are looking to request a priest, head over there. To purchase talismans, go to the other side." One of the youngsters clad in black casts a displeased glance at Huo Zaiyuan and Zuo Hanyang as he speaks.
"I"m not here to request anyone, nor am I here to purchase talismans." Huo Zaiyuan doesn"t spare the rude person a glance, hinting for Zuo Hanyang to continue leading the way.
"Presumptuous…you…do you think just anyone is allowed to enter this ‘School of Taoism’?!" Being so blatantly ignored by some commoner in front of his most admired person, that rude disciple really feels his face is being torn. Flushing red in anger, he wants to charge forward and teach Huo Zaiyuan a lesson.
"Zhang Hua, control your anger." A gentle voice akin to a soft breeze rises as a fair hand reaches out to touch the man"s shoulder. "May I ask, why have you come to this school? Senior Martial Uncle is temporarily occupied with matters outside."
This polite enquiry causes Huo Zaiyuan"s footsteps to stop and turn to face the speaker. Fiery red garment contrasting nicely with pale skin coupled with a visage fine enough to move a person makes a very lovely vision. However, in Huo Zaiyuan"s eyes, this person is not much different from the round and ugly boulder placed outside the building"s entrance.
"Just curious. I want to take a look around, that"s all." Faced with such courtesy, he cannot be cra.s.s.
"Then I welcome you. Please, walk this way." A dazzling smile surfaces on the man"s face as he walks unhurriedly in front of Huo Zaiyuan and sweeps an arm in a gesture of invitation. "Pleased to meet you. I am Xu Mingyi."
"h.e.l.lo, I am Zi Yuan." Huo Zaiyuan replies, not giving his real ident.i.ty. Although Long Zhanye is aware of his personal matters, the three words "Huo Zaiyuan" has better to be used as few times as possible in order to avoid unnecessary trouble.
"I am Zuo Hanyang." Waving a hand, the adjutant beams. "I know you, you were the one who slaughtered through a horde to break the siege the first time you went out with a mercenary squad."
A light blush stains Xu Mingyi"s cheeks. "That was merely a one-off event."
The two follows Xu Mingyi inside, and the group of black-robed disciples decide to tag along as well.
"Here is the hall disciples of this school use to practise drawing talismans." Leading the two men into a room, Xu Mingyi explains. Two rows of desks a neatly lined up, with quite a lot of yellow papers, a book and a calligraphy brush rack sitting on each desk.
Walking towards one of the desks, Huo Zaiyuan casually picks up a yellow paper to study the runes drawn on it.
This paper is an ordinary one and not a true talisman paper. The ink used is also not cinnabar but normal black ink.
This charm is a simple one, the most common defensive talisman. The characters are skewed and messy, clearly belonging to a beginner. The strokes are often broken where the person keeps lifting their brush off the paper before placing it down again. If this had been drawn using cinnabar on a real talisman paper, this charm will be a dud. On top of that…this is incomplete.
"Tsk, brat, do you even understand what you are looking at? This is a rather powerful charm." The same disciple who nearly attacked Huo Zaiyuan can"t help but ridicule the youth when he picked up the paper.
However, Huo Zaiyuan doesn"t react in the slightest to the weak jab, but beside him, Zuo Hanyang is not as calm as he retrieves a triangular talisman from inside his coat pocket.
"Little Yuan, I know this one. Before I left A City, grandfather even gave one to me." Unfolding the paper, Zuo Hanyang hands it over to Huo Zaiyuan as though handing over a priceless item.
Taoist talismans are precious items. Even the lowest quality defence charm has to be bought with several blue points. Disciples in this school has never touched a genuine low-quality talisman paper before, never mind a high-quality one.
When Zuo Hanyang takes out his talisman, the eyes of Xu Mingyi who is standing aside darkens as he can tell with one glance that particular charm is a highest quality one. It seems this person"s status is not ordinary.
Taking the offered charm, Huo Zaiyuan smiles faintly. A trace of admiration appears in his eyes as he studies it intently.
The person who created this talisman is an extremely able Taoist. Bold and powerful strokes, smooth like running water. Although it is a simple charm, it is rich with potent spiritual energy.
Using ordinary cinnabar ink to produce an effect equivalent to his spring pool"s water…
If this person also used his special mixture of spring water and ant crystal, what extraordinary talismans they would be able to create.