Chapter 42

Mount Zhongnan, also known as Mount Taiyi, covers an area of more than a thousand square kilometers and has been a famous hermitage since ancient times.

The "Nanshan" in the saying "Wishing you longevity like the unaging pine of the southern mountain and happiness as boundless as the endless flow of the eastern sea" refers to Mount Zhongnan, located in the middle section of the Qinling Mountains.

An 18-kilometer-long tunnel serves as a crucial link between the plains and the mountainous area. Wang Xiancheng took a taxi onto the highway, heading straight for the depths of Mount Zhongnan.

The taxi stopped on the highway, and under the puzzled gaze of the driver, Wang Xiancheng climbed over the highway barrier and quickly disappeared from the driver's sight...

Chongyang Palace, also known as Chongyang Wanshou Palace, is the birthplace of the mainstream Quanzhen Daoism.

However, the true Chongyang Palace is not the grand palace complex open to tourists, but a simple, ancient courtyard hidden deep in Mount Zhongnan, far from the noise of the world.

This cluster of buildings nestled in a valley is the true essence of Chongyang Palace.

When Wang Xiancheng, after nearly two hours of climbing, returned to the valley, it was already past one o'clock in the morning.

Apart from a few young Taoists keeping watch outside the valley, most of the inner disciples of Chongyang Palace were either meditating or sound asleep.

"Who's there?" A vague figure appeared, and the young Taoists on duty outside the valley immediately became tense.

"It's me!" Fortunately, Wang Xiancheng had no intention of playing tricks on them. He responded from a distance and soon appeared within the range of the candlelight.

"It's Uncle Wang..." The young Taoists, all in their late teens, relaxed when they recognized Wang Xiancheng.

Only one chubby young Taoist asked curiously, "Uncle Wang, didn't you go down the mountain for a journey? You just left a few days ago, why are you back so soon?"

Wang Xiancheng's seniority was high, but his age was young. The young Taoists were used to his approachable nature and didn't act as timidly as his fellow disciples, who would be too afraid to speak freely.

In the past, Wang Xiancheng might have stopped to chat with them, a good way to pass the time in the mountains.

But tonight, his expression was serious. He simply said, "I have something important," and hurried into the valley.

The young Taoists watched Wang Xiancheng's hurried back with confusion. The chubby young Taoist scratched his head and said, "What's up with Uncle Wang? He looks like his pants are on fire..."

"Maybe life down the mountain is too hard, and he couldn't take it, so he came back early..." Another young Taoist, who had been sent to Mount Zhongnan for cultivation since childhood, touched his nose and looked up at the night sky, saying, "I wonder when I can go down the mountain..."

The outer disciples of Chongyang Palace were worldly-wise, but the inner disciples in this valley mostly retained their simple hearts. Many had practiced in the mountains for decades without ever leaving Mount Zhongnan!

The other three young Taoists laughed at him, "Elder Brother Zhao hasn't left the valley in over twenty years, and you want to go down the mountain for a journey? First, you need to reach the Second Stage!"

One of the inner rules of Chongyang Palace is that disciples under thirty must reach the Second Stage before they are allowed to go down the mountain for a journey, while those over thirty only need to reach the First Stage.

This young Taoist, being only in his late teens, naturally had to meet the first requirement.

Hearing his fellow disciples' teasing, the young Taoist pouted and muttered, "I'll break through to the First Stage and show you! Didn't Uncle Wang reach the Second Stage in just a few years from scratch..."

"So that's why you have to call him Uncle Wang! Hahaha..."

...

"Huh? Little Brother, didn't you go down the mountain for a journey? Why are you back early?" Wang Xiancheng ran into a small courtyard deep in the valley and was stopped at the door.

Looking up, Wang Xiancheng smiled bitterly, "It's Seventh Senior Brother... I have something urgent to report to Master. Where is Master?"

"Master is in the Heart-Asking Pavilion, teaching the Fifth and Sixth Senior Brothers. What's so urgent? You look so anxious. If Master sees you, he'll scold you again." Seventh Senior Brother, with a mustache and a sturdy build, looked Wang Xiancheng up and down and said, "Can you tell me what it's about first?"

"This..." Wang Xiancheng hesitated for a moment before saying, "I met a Fourth Stage True Cultivator younger than me in Jincheng, South Lake Province... He has content from the Chongyang Scripture!"

"A Fourth Stage True Cultivator younger than you?!" Seventh Senior Brother was shocked and then heard that the person had content from the Chongyang Scripture.

He didn't dare to delay any longer and said to Wang Xiancheng, "Have you confirmed this? Wait here. If you hear such profound content before reaching the required stage, it won't benefit you... I'll go report to Master first!"

"Alright!" Wang Xiancheng nodded and bowed, "Thank you, Senior Brother..."

The head of Chongyang Palace, Xuanhong Zhenren, was eighty-seven years old but looked youthful and healthy. If not for his silver hair, he could easily pass for someone in his forties!

When Seventh Senior Brother ran to the Heart-Asking Pavilion and whispered a few words in Xuanhong Zhenren's ear, the latter, who had been leaning on a wooden bench, sat up straight.

His calm and peaceful expression instantly turned serious...

Xuanhong Zhenren asked, "Where is your Ninth Junior Brother?"

"He's waiting outside..."

"Let him in." Xuanhong Zhenren said to his Fifth and Sixth disciples, "You two go back and rest."

"Yes..." The Fifth and Sixth disciples looked at Seventh Junior Brother with confusion, wondering what he had told Master Xuanhong.

However, when Seventh Senior Brother led Wang Xiancheng in, Xuanhong Zhenren also dismissed him...

Soon, the Heart-Asking Pavilion, bathed in moonlight, was left with only Wang Xiancheng and Xuanhong Zhenren.

Looking at his youngest disciple, Xuanhong Zhenren asked, "What's the background of this person?"

"Master, I only know he's from Wufeng Temple in South Lake Province. He claims to be a descendant disciple of the founder of Wufeng Temple, Wufeng Zhenren. I don't know his Dharma name, but his secular name is Yang Chen..."

"Wufeng Temple in South Lake Province?" Xuanhong Zhenren searched his memory and soon recalled the temple's history. He frowned, "Is it the Wufeng Temple on Wufeng Mountain by Poyang Lake?"

"Yes, that's the one... Master knows it?"

"Wufeng Zhenren was an Eighth Stage True Cultivator in his time, just one step away from the Ninth Stage. He was a prodigy." Xuanhong Zhenren stood up, hands behind his back, and paced, "Unfortunately, his descendants were incompetent, leading to the incomplete transmission of the Wufeng lineage. It's no longer as glorious as it once was... Does this Yang Chen have any proof of being a disciple of Wufeng Temple?"

"The head and elders of Wufeng Temple all went to Jincheng to find him. How could it be fake?" Wang Xiancheng said, "In the hotel room, another person from Wufeng Temple also broke through to the Fourth Stage on the same day as Yang Chen..."

Xuanhong Zhenren, who oversaw the Quanzhen sect, wasn't interested in such details. He nodded and asked, "How did you know Yang Chen has content from the Chongyang Scripture?"

"He gave it to me himself..." Wang Xiancheng carefully took out the note Yang Chen had written and handed it to Xuanhong Zhenren, saying, "He even claimed it wasn't from the Chongyang Scripture..."

Xuanhong Zhenren took the note and examined it closely. His expression turned to shock, and without a second glance, he burned the note with a small flame...

"Master, what are you doing?"

"Has anyone else seen the content on this note besides you?" Xuanhong Zhenren was even nervous!

"No... I've been careful on the way back and haven't shown it to anyone..."

"Good, very good..." Xuanhong Zhenren's forehead was covered in a fine layer of sweat, clearly from shock! But in front of his disciple, he could only suppress his agitation and asked, "Did Yang Chen say anything when he gave you this note?"

"He just told me to bring it back for you to see..."

"Anything else?"

"He also said... after this matter is resolved, I should go back to Jincheng, and he would teach me some skills I can't learn at Chongyang Palace... Master, is the content on this note really from the Chongyang Scripture?!"

Wang Xiancheng had been anxious about this on his way back, eager to know if it was from the Chongyang Scripture!

But Xuanhong Zhenren didn't answer his question, instead, a playful smile appeared on his face, "Did Yang Chen really say that?"

"Say what?"

"Go back to Jincheng and learn from him?"

"He said it himself, but it sounds arrogant... Chongyang Palace is the ancestral home of the Quanzhen sect, with nearly a thousand years of tradition..."

"Then go back and learn from him." Before Wang Xiancheng could finish, Xuanhong Zhenren interrupted him and said seriously, "This person is no ordinary man. You must learn from him with all your heart!"

"Ah?!" Wang Xiancheng was stunned, "But Master..."

"This is your fortune and blessing." Xuanhong Zhenren smiled, "Just from the few hundred words on that note, he's qualified to be my teacher..."

"Uh..." The series of shocks left Wang Xiancheng frozen in place...

The few hundred words Yang Chen had written were indeed derived from the Chongyang Scripture, and they were the most obscure and profound part of it!

The reason it was derived rather than copied was that the content Yang Chen wrote was an advanced version of the original, an upgraded version!

Wang Chongyang, a prodigy of a thousand years, was a super-strong cultivator equivalent to a Fifth Stage satellite!

When the esoteric knowledge passed down through Earth's history became a hindrance to his cultivation, Wang Chongyang locked himself in the famous Living Dead Man's Tomb for seven years!

Seven years of thinking, struggling, and observing made Wang Chongyang one of the few transcendent beings in Earth's history, alongside the Buddhist patriarch Bodhidharma!

Wang Chongyang found patterns in the operation of Daoist techniques and tried to structure them, but due to the limited conditions of his time, he couldn't achieve his goal and passed away with deep regret.

What Wang Chongyang tried to do was essentially very close to the cultivation of spiritual martial arts that had evolved for countless years in the universe. Unfortunately, he, like Bodhidharma and the Christian figure Jesus, ultimately failed due to the limitations of his life and the isolated environment.

However, in the Chongyang Scripture written in his later years, Wang Chongyang recorded some of his research findings.

This led to the birth of the terrifying Elder Council of Chongyang Palace, akin to a nuclear bomb in the Chinese esoteric world!

The main responsibility of the Elder Council was to continue the research Wang Chongyang couldn't complete and to realize many of his hypotheses from nearly a thousand years ago!

After several hundred years, the Elder Council had accumulated a significant amount of research results.

Xuanhong Zhenren was also a member of the Elder Council and participated in some of its research projects.

However, the research required strict qualifications for the researchers, and the results couldn't be taught to the disciples until they were thoroughly analyzed, as it was a risky endeavor.

It wasn't until the core energy eruption caused a major change in the world that the research projects of the Elder Council were gradually made public.

This was a cornerstone of Earth's spiritual martial arts development, and it was thanks to these solid foundations that Earth's spiritual martial arts progressed rapidly.

The nature of the Elder Council was similar to the 'Energy Particle Development and Application Research Institutes' of later times, but it remained shrouded in mystery, even to the inner disciples of Chongyang Palace!

According to Yang Chen, there were at least thirty such original research institutions on Earth, including the Celestial Master's Mansion on Dragon Tiger Mountain in West River Province, the Southern Mountain Temple on Wutai Mountain in West Mountain Province, the Guanyin Nunnery on Jiuhua Mountain in Anhui Province, and the Potala Palace in Tibet!

The content Yang Chen wrote on the note Wang Xiancheng brought back to Chongyang Palace was actually a simplified outline of a research topic. This outline would serve as a guiding light, pointing the Elder Council in the right direction for many of its research projects!

Wang Xiancheng didn't understand, so he mistakenly thought it was the original text of the Chongyang Scripture.

Xuanhong Zhenren understood, so after dismissing Wang Xiancheng, he rushed to the Elder Council, hidden in a cave a few kilometers from the valley... He knew the impact of these few hundred words would be astonishing!

If not for Yang Chen's statement that he didn't want to have much contact with Chongyang Palace at the moment, Xuanhong Zhenren would have flown to Jincheng for a long talk with Yang Chen that very night!