Chapter 284 The Great Dao and the Master (End)

The old scroll left by Li Chunfeng ends with an excerpt from "Huainanzi·Yuan Dao Xun", which is also a different approach, explaining why the mechanical tomb left by the Twelve Caves uses the "five tones" as decryption clues.

The so-called five tones are just the surface. The sounds produced by blending these five most basic scales are beautiful enough to be heard. Therefore, for the tone, once the palace tune is established, the five tones will be complete.

What Li Chunfeng left for Xiao Yan was not any extraordinary skills or magical weapons. The only thing he left behind was this truth.

Using the five tones as the basis for passing the level is to tell Xiao Yan——

If the sound is not right, the meaning must be evil.

If a person is not upright, he will inevitably be destroyed.

This principle is also very simple and easy to understand. For everything in the world, as long as a benchmark is established, just as the five tones need to be established; in terms of taste, the five flavors will be established once sweetness is established; in terms of color, the five colors will be established once white is established.

This is the foundation and also the most important principle for the formation of all things.

For "Tao", once "one" is established, all things will be formed.

The principle of "one" is applicable everywhere, and the essence of "one" can be applied between heaven and earth.

What is this "one"? The five sentences left by Li Chunfeng may be enough to comprehend it. But on the other hand, the five sentences left by Li Chunfeng are telling Xiao Yan everywhere -

Indisputable.

The wind and rain come suddenly, the heaven and the earth dominate nature, all things follow the way of heaven, under the oppression of the way of heaven, the laws of nature will follow the situation, how difficult it is to stop it?
However, even if the wind and rain are fierce, they will not remain unchanged forever. The strong wind will stop, and the heavy rain will stop. It seems that even the ruler of heaven and earth cannot last forever, let alone humans? Let alone the dynasty?
The Tang Dynasty will eventually collapse after three hundred years. This is an eternal truth. Even if it does not collapse for three hundred years, it will eventually collapse after four hundred or five hundred years. The power of an individual is too small in the face of the law of nature.

This is the way of heaven that Li Chunfeng follows, and this is the way of heaven that refutes Yuan Tiangang.

Yuan Tiangang's tyranny is to fight, fight with the sky, fight with people, fight with everything, fight for a glorious Tang Dynasty, fight for all nations to come and pay tribute, and a peaceful world!

But is the way of heaven that Li Chunfeng believes in really non-contention?

The first words Li Chunfeng left at the entrance of Xiaoyan are: "Blunt its sharpness, resolve its conflicts, soften its light, and become one with its dust."

Blunt its edge.

This is Li Chunfeng telling Xiao Yan that he needs to restrain his edge and change from competing outwardly to restraining inwardly.

This is the Tao that Li Chunfeng wanted to impart to Xiao Yan: close your eyes and listen carefully, look inward, and stay true to your original heart.

Resolve the dispute.

The Tao has smoothed its own edges, so it has no edge, no division or choice, so it is naturally harmonious, disputes are resolved by themselves, and all things return to one.

With its light, with its dust.

It is the resonance of the same frequency, the response of the same voice, and the heart of the people. In this way, it can be like light and dust, with hundreds of thousands of incarnations everywhere, invisible and formless, silent and breathless, but it can play an indispensable role in the world.

Therefore, Li Chunfeng's non-contention does not mean not competing for everything, but rather following the principle of "non-action", not competing with the people, following the will of the people, and not acting recklessly.

Yuan Tiangang's tyranny was enough to win over everyone from the royal family to the princes and nobles, and the feudal lords. He could use rebellious ministers like An Lushan and Shi Siming to warn Emperor Xuanzong and use them at will.

Bandits like Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao were just means for him to warn the Tang Dynasty and remind Emperor Xizong, and they could be destroyed in a moment.

Even heroes of troubled times like Zhu Wen, Li Keyong and Li Maozhen were just chess pieces he used to balance the chaos. He had been planning for thirty years, trying to overthrow the situation in a moment. As long as the time came for Li Xingyun to take the throne, Zhu Wen would die suddenly.

Domineering, how domineering!!!
In the five hundred years since the Tang Dynasty, has there been another Yuan Tiangang? Is he still as domineering as him?

No, just as there won’t be another Emperor Taizong in the past five hundred years and there won’t be another Yuan Tiangang in the future five hundred years, there won’t be another one as domineering as this one!
But even if he was so domineering, what would the result be? Would the Tang Dynasty have never perished? Would the prosperous times have remained unchanged for eternity? Would the Li family have been able to sit in the court for a thousand years?
Even a tyrant like Yuan Tiangang could only place his hopes on Li Xingyun. Even if he could control the princes and vassal states, even if he could easily overturn the chaos in the world, what was the use? Wouldn't he just sit back and watch the Tang Dynasty fall and wait for thirty years?
Therefore, Li Chunfeng left five sentences from the Tao Te Ching to tell Xiao Yan.

Not fighting means not fighting against Heaven, not fighting against Tao, and not fighting against the laws of nature. The Tang Dynasty perished after only 300 years because it followed the laws of nature. Forcing it is useless and will never be useful.

"He does not show off, so he is clear; he does not think he is right, so he is famous; he does not boast, so he has achievements; he does not boast, so he is superior; because he does not contend, no one in the world can contend with him."

It is precisely because of non-contention that one can achieve the supreme spiritual attainment.

The hearts and minds of the people cannot be won through fighting. Even if one could gain the support of all the princes in the world, the chaos would still exist and the people would still suffer, which would still be contrary to the right path.

Just as the fact that “the highest good is like water. Water benefits all things without contention”, water obviously does nothing, but all things in the world are close to water. What does that mean?
It's not about not fighting. If you can tie yourself to the public opinion and make it moisten things silently and benefit all things, then this is fighting. It can even be more intense and more crazy than tyranny.

Simply put, Yuan Tiangang’s tyranny is aimed at the superstructure.

Li Chunfeng's way of heaven is based on economic foundation.

That is why Li Chunfeng left behind the Huainanzi and left Xiao Yan with the sentence "Tao, once established, all things come into being."

…………

"To exist is not to be small, to perish is to lose the way, not to be great."

Under the cover of night, Xiao Yan sat on the altar at the site of the Twelve Caves, facing the headless statue of Li Chunfeng, flipping through the book and sighing.

This is a very simple way of governing a country, and is also an important part of being a ruler. It shows Li Chunfeng's good intentions. This is also the reason why Li Chunfeng kept telling Xiao Yan to be hardworking in the book.

This old fellow is showing off his knowledge in a roundabout way.

From Li Chunfeng's perspective of the Way of Heaven, it seems that the principle of natural selection is everywhere, but if we really want to talk about it, there should be a saying of "preserve the most suitable", that is to say, what is left may be the most suitable, but other things are not necessarily wrong, they are just no longer suitable for this era, they can still survive until the day when they should die.

Yuan Tiangang's tyranny is the true "survival of the fittest". The one who survives to the end must have stepped on the corpses of everyone else. It has nothing to do with anything else. This is tyranny.

If Xiao Yan was asked to say which is better, the way of heaven or the way of tyranny, he could not judge. Yuan Tiangang's tyranny can be seen as a traditional heroic historical view, where he wants to keep the dynasty going forever with his own strength.

Li Chunfeng's Heavenly Way can be regarded as the people's historical perspective. Since the prosperous dynasty was carried by the people, and since the dynasty was overthrown by the people, what's wrong with that?
But no matter what, Li Chunfeng has made Xiao Yan understand more truths, and the things that have been stubborn for a long time seem to have finally found a way to dissipate.

Frustration resolves disputes and harmonizes the light.

Establish the Tao and give birth to all things.

Xiao Yan knew that he was not a saint, but he could try to become a person who established the Tao. If he wanted to follow the Way of Heaven, he should know what kind of person he should be.

"Xiao Guoguo, you finally finished reading it!"

Chi Meng, who was squatting on the ground playing with insects not far away, stood up. When he saw Xiao Yan close the book, he was overjoyed.

Well, that Li Somefeng is really capable. Xiao Guoguo is such an amazing person, but it took him a whole hour to write these few hundred words!
"How is it?" Ji Ruxue, who was leaning against a stone pillar with her arms folded, took a nap. Now she opened her eyes and looked over.

"It's been a fruitful trip." Xiao Yan nodded and said with a smile, "This trip was not in vain." Seeing him like this, Ji Ruxue couldn't help but laugh, and even felt a little grateful to Li Chunfeng.

"This Li Chunfeng is really amazing."

Chi Meng counted on his fingers and said, "He left behind such a tomb of traps and used the five tones as clues, but there just happened to be a young lady among us, otherwise it would have been difficult to get through... Do you think he got it right?"

"And this thing." As she spoke, she held up a small scroll with obviously denser handwriting than the book in Xiao Yan's hand. It recorded the sequence of how the Twelve Caves refined the Altar of the God of War, how it was resolved by Li Chunfeng, and how it was razed to the ground by Yuan Tiangang's troops.

At the end of the secret scroll, there was a hexagram. To put it bluntly, it told them that if they wanted to find the Twelve Caves, they needed to go south and pass a place called Luohua Cave, where they would find a woman named Qianwu. With her, they would find the key clue to the Twelve Caves.

"You said that Li Chunfeng died three hundred years ago, but the key is that when he left this thing, the Twelve Caves had not yet migrated. And according to what my father told me, the legend of the Falling Flower Cave is not as old as the Twelve Caves. Then how did Li Chunfeng know that there was a Qianwu in it? It's amazing." Chi Meng said: "What if we go there and there is no Qianwu?"

Hou Qing listened nearby and nodded slowly.

"What do you think, disciple? What I said is not bad, right?" Chi Meng saw Hou Qing nodding in agreement, and felt quite proud, and patted his chest.

"No."

Hou Qing held the bone flute, paced back and forth, and recited the few hexagrams left by Li Chunfeng, with a particularly serious expression: "The person who died three hundred years ago knew everything about what happened three hundred years after his death. You, me, and him are all people in the hexagram. Three hundred years have passed without any error. Thinking about it this way, he is really a god..."

He closed his eyes, as if thinking about the demeanor of the old immortal three hundred years ago. When he opened his eyes again, he finally held the bone flute and looked at the few people, saying: "If a person can do this, his life will not be in vain. Where can I learn divination?"

Chi Meng put his hands on his hips and puffed his face.

Are you sure? You have only acknowledged me as your master not long ago!
Ji Ruxue couldn't help but hold her forehead with her hand, feeling a little difficult to comment.

You Chuan thought about it carefully, and gave a serious answer, saying: "I heard people say before that the Tianshi Mansion in Longhu Mountain in the Central Plains has a lot of insights into yin and yang and Taoism..."

Hou Qing nodded and closed his eyes again, as if imagining how he would look like if he combined the skills of divination, music control, and sword control with his spiritual power into one.

Just thinking about it makes me feel so happy!!
Xiao Yan smiled but didn't say anything. If one really wanted to learn divination in this world, he would probably have to find Yuan Tiangang, or look for the book "Yi Si Zhan" which was the result of Li Chunfeng's hard work.

He raised his head and looked at the statue in the distance. The statue was slightly bent, with one hand behind his back and the other hand in front of him as if looking out, and his mind was filled with thoughts.

As he thought about it, he stood up, took off the wine gourd from his waist, walked over the short ladder, placed the pot of peach blossom wine that he had brewed in Changsha on the platform, and then, with the etiquette of a student, slowly performed three salutes to the statue.

Ji Ruxue's face was serious, and she finally understood why Xiao Yan had to carry a bottle of wine with him at all times during the journey.

She had really thought that Xiao Yan was just on a whim and wanted to imitate the so-called chivalrous knight who traveled the world with a horse, a bottle of wine and a sword. Now that she thought about it, it turned out that he had this plan for a long time.

I wonder if this pot of wine that traveled hundreds of miles can thank Xiao Yan for what he got from this tomb of mechanisms.

"Rest for a night and set off tomorrow."

Xiao Yan turned around and smiled, a rare and relaxed smile. He looked up at the starry sky and felt happy for a moment.

It seems that I have never seen such a night scene since I entered Raojiang.

Everyone was very happy. Chi Meng knew how to find the Twelve Caves, which meant they could finally save the Gu King.

Hou Qing has another great path to pursue, which is equally fulfilling.

Ji Ruxue accompanied Xiao Yan all the way, and finally saw him get what he wanted, and she felt relieved and happy.

As for You Chuan, although he did not gain or lose anything, it was obvious that he gradually gained a sense of identity in this team, so he spontaneously took over the task of keeping watch and lit a bonfire in the night.

……

At night, there were shadowy figures around the Twelve Caves Ruins, and dense rustling sounds began to move towards the bonfire.

Xiao Yan was the first to wake up. When he walked out of the stone house, Hou Qing just fell from the tree.

You Chuan looked at them with a serious expression.

The two girls followed Xiao Yan, one in front and one behind. Ji Ruxue couldn't help but frown, looking at the bad guys wearing bamboo hats and holding Tang swords from afar.

Accompanying them were the five remaining old subordinates, who also wore tattered hats, but had different body shapes and their aura was far less than that of the bad guys.

Kuijia walked in the front, holding an unsheathed Tang sword and saluted Xiao Yan from a distance.

Xiao Yan smiled and picked up the old book: "Are you here to get this?"

Before in Guishizi, he and Xiao Weng reached a short-term cooperation intention. As for their whereabouts in Sixilin, Xiao Weng Yunluo could use a substitute to cover for half a day. In addition, Xiao Yan was intentional, so even the Tiankui group who had been secretly monitoring them were gotten rid of by him in Guishizi.

But it was not surprising that they were able to find it. Xiao Yan took the old book in his hand and waved to Kuijia and others.

"You're welcome, just come and get it."

As he spoke, he said to the others, "Go according to the hexagram. You don't have to wait for me. I will find you naturally. Corpse Ancestor, I still need you to take care of me."

Hou Qing nodded, and then actually ignored Tian Kui and his old subordinates and turned away.

Ji Ruxue didn't say much, just threw the Tang sword to Xiao Yan.

"Be careful."

"Little Pot!" Chi Meng opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say, so he just clenched his fist and waved it.

You Chuan stayed behind voluntarily, drew out the scimitar he carried with him, and fought the enemy together with Xiao Yan.

Kuijia didn't say much. He raised his hand and pointed. The nine people behind him instantly dispersed their formation and surrounded Xiao Yan in the center.

The five old subordinates flashed and chased after Ji Ruxue and the other two.

"You go help them."

Xiao Yan pushed the handle of the knife with his thumb and looked back at the statue of Li Chunfeng. The bones all over his body made an explosive sound. In just a moment, all his bones were biting tighter.

You Chuan nodded and quickly chased after him.

In response to this, Tiankui and his group still did not stop him, but just stared at Xiao Yan silently.

Like an enemy.

(End of this chapter)