Chapter 393 Natural Invisible Broken Sword Intent
“Wow?! Miss, reorganize your words. I’m not fat, I’m just strong,” Husky said with dissatisfaction.
The word “fat” was generally used to describe pigs.
“Yeah! How dare you talk to me in this tone? Hee hey, General, you became proud after becoming able to speak.” w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu ran over and caught the back of Husky’s neck all at once.
That was how she used to play with Husky when on Earth, because she knew the dog’s weaknesses.
As w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu touched it, her eyes narrowed into crescents, and she smiled contentedly. “Ah, it’s so soft and slippery… Ah, it’s so cute, and stroking a dog makes me happy.”
“Ah, let go… I am the dignified wolf emperor of the prairie.” Husky failed to struggle out anxiously, since it didn’t dare to fight fiercely. It was really tragic to endure the ‘humiliation’ from that woman who had little strength.
Li Mu laughed next to them.
At that moment, except for the stupid dog unexpectedly speaking, he felt as if he were back on earth. After school, w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu teased Husky like that on a sunny day, while he was laughing beside them… That time was gone.
With such laughter, all went to the inner courtyard of the Daoyin Temple.
The surrounding buildings were made of red bricks and green tiles, which seemed ancient.
The main hall of the Daoyin Temple was called Longevity Hall, built by the Northern Song Dynasty, whose meaning could be told from the name. A lot of effort was taken to build it thousands of years before. The hall was very high, nail-free and wooden-made, gorgeous and exquisite in shape. Weathering through more than a thousand years, it was still extremely st.u.r.dy.
Several Taoist G.o.ds were placed in it, including the memorial tablets of the emperors in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Unlike other empires, the emperors of the Song Dynasty, despite their cultivation level or life span, all stepped down the reign within 100 years, and those beyond that age, even if still alive and energetic, would choose to leave and then become monks, so as to place their own tablets in the Taoist temple.
During those years, the Northern Song Dynasty capital was reset in the south and the status of the Daoyin Temple gradually declined. The Longevity Hall was no longer as golden and glorious as before, and it required less maintenance. With some moss around the budding, it became gray and black, full of historical sense.
Li Mu and the others, led by the head of the Daoyin Temple, leader Qin, walked from the side of the Wanshou Temple and went to the backyard.
The backyard was full of life.
The Taoist priests in the Daoyin Temple almost lived there with livestock, including leisurely roosters and hens, and yellow chasing dogs. There were also ridges for vegetables, on which different fruits and vegetables were planted. In the distance, several little priests pulled up their trousers’ legs and stepped on a rotary waterwheel beside a pond to irrigate the vegetable field.
Low lodges stood in a vertical line under the stone cliff.
Between them was a fine well-maintained courtyard, with the pines and cypresses at the gate carefully trimmed, and the vermilion gate was clean. That was the place used to treat some royal guests. Even though fewer and fewer royal guests were seen over the years, the tradition had survived.
Li Mu and the others were arranged in that courtyard.
After all, Lord Virtuous the Eighth was old and not well-cultivated; he was frightened and on medication during those days. Therefore, after chatting with Li Mu for a while, he quickly became tired and fell asleep while having the maid’s help.
The others also took a break.
Li Mu rested in a very delicate room.
He closed his eyes to rest in the room, activating his qi to understand the Broadsword Intent.
That day, in the camp of Glory Army, the Broadsword Intent of the Southern Fire Emperor he performed began to take shape. At that time, he was deliberately deducing it. In Li Mu’s mind, some general idea appeared for the method of the Natural Invisible Body-Broken Sword Intent. When the Broadsword Intent was urged, he could defeat the enemies, which was the beginning of the Sword Intent.
However, his sword intention was vague, which was very effective against ordinary warriors. For example, that day, when he killed the Glory Army, those elite armored men turned into flames and fly ash. But he needed more time to defeat Du Lvji and Zhao Chen.
That was the shortcoming.
Li Mu was perfecting his imagined Natural Invisible Body-Broken Sword Intent method.
He was concentrated and deliberate.
After one hour, the knocking suddenly interrupted his practice.
“Go. Let’s go to a place.” w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu appeared riding on the Husky, suddenly and mysteriously saying to him.
Husky’s tail wagged like a fan, and it stuck its tongue out. It looked happy, since its laughing eyes were almost squeezed shut. He didn’t know how it was coaxed by w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu, which left Li Mu quite surprised.
“Where?” Li Mu had a startled look.
w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu deliberately said, “Hurry up, and you will know by then.”
After a while, she took Li Mu to the end of the house and stepped onto a path. After a few turns, she said, “Here it is.” w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu pointed to the front.
Li Mu saw that at the corner of the stone cliff, there was a flat land, covering an area of about an acre, and a small stone hall was hidden in the towering old pines and cypresses, which was hard to find.
When they went closer.
Li Mu saw a rectangular stone-made tablet on the back of a green bull statue, which was lying on the ground at the gate of the stone palace.
There were four impure Chinese characters on the stone tablet—
‘The Way Is Nature.’
Li Mu’s eyebrows jumped.
When he looked at the green cow on the ground, he consciously realized something.
Going forward.
The whole stone hall was carved from rock, 3.3 meters high, three meters long and three meters wide. Along the nine steps, they approached the door and saw three huge Chinese characters on the rock plaque—
Tao Te Hall.
Li Mu looked at w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu.
w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu said, “I have been here before and when I saw this, I couldn’t help but connect it with the ancient sage, Lao Zi. But to be honest, I didn’t think much of it. After hearing what you said about the ancient sages of the earth, who opened up the fairy Path to step out of the earth and into the galaxy, I think it may not be a coincidence, so I thought I should take you to see it.”
Laozi went out of the Hangu Pa.s.s by riding a black ox and spring wind, leaving the Tao Te Ching, the king of cla.s.sics, on earth. The text contained the methods of self-cultivation, governing the country and army, and whose themes were “Saint in the Inner world and King the outer” and ‘The natural way’, which was exactly related to the four Chinese characters on the stone stele.
All of that was absolutely no coincidence.
Li Mu realized that the Daoyin Temple had something to do with Laozi.
But that place was the Royal Taoist temple for the Northern Song Royal Family. Did the Northern Song Royal Family have something to do with Laozi?
But, it was unreasonable.
Yu Hualong once said that the Great Moon Empire was the empire created by the earth’s sages, and the later three major empires were established after the Great Moon Empire was split. That was, the Western Qin, the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Southern Chu who were ant.i.thetical to the Great Moon Empire, the earth’s sages. From that perspective, the Northern Song Dynasty royal family was also an enemy to Laozi.
Why was there a Tao Te Hall in the royal Taoist temple of the Northern Song Dynasty?
Li Mu was puzzled.
He walked into the main hall and saw that there was no statue in the center and no portrait on the lotus pedestal above the stone base. Instead, there were some knife-made marks, arrow-made holes around the pedestal, and the traces of burning … which seemed to be intentional destruction.
There was nothing else in the hall, and the whole stone hall seemed to be predominantly empty.
But Li Mu could see that the original appearance of the hall shouldn’t have been that way, as the contents inside had been destroyed and evacuated.
“My sworn father said that in this Tao Te Hall, there were many relics from the pre-epoch period that were originally wors.h.i.+pped and kept by the Northern Song royal family. Later, since the Song capital was relocated to the south and the status of the Daoyin Temple declined, many of the artifacts here were moved to the Taiyi Palace in Lin’an City. Since the Taiyi Palace is heavily guarded, and no one else could enter except with the special order from the Emperor, I haven’t had the opportunity to enter the place. I don’t know what’s going on inside.” w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu said by his side.
Li Mu nodded.
However, Li Mu didn’t think those things were ordered to be moved away. Judging from those traces at the scene, he thought it was more like a ransacking or plunder.
After wandering around the stone hall again, he made no discoveries, so they decided to leave.
However, walking toward the stone tablet on the back of Qingniu, Li Mu stopped again.
Because he discovered that some words were also carved on the back of the stele—
“The Way can be told, but it isn’t the usual meaning. The name can be made, but it can’t be told. The sense is the beginning of the world, and the name the mother of all creatures. The sense is used to discover the mystery, while the name is the appearance. The two things are from the same origin. It is the mystery!”
As expected.
Those words were an excerpt of the first chapter in the Tao Te Ching.
It was also the fabulous outline.
Li Mu had read the Tao Te Ching before when he was on earth.
At that time, under the forceful teaching of the old faker, Li Mu was familiar with the cla.s.sics, but the old faker did not explain the content. While in times of leisure, the old faker kept teaching him about the Tao Te Ching, thinking it was the beginning of the Great Way. Li Mu had heard the old faker read the Tao Te Ching aloud many times, but he made no sense of it at all. The old faker yelled at Li Mu for being a wooden puppet.
At that time, Li Mu suddenly felt a little dizzy when seeing that line of words.
He rubbed his eyes and unexpectedly found that the line seemed to be alive, as it was moving, and he was instantly hooked by them.