Chapter 1

At the foot of Zhongnan Mountain, in a deep mountain hollow, there is a small village that is destined never to appear on the map of China.

According to the village's old and faded sheepskin family register, the village's history can be traced back to several hundred years ago, to the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, when the ancestors of the village had already settled in this mountain hollow at the foot of Zhongnan Mountain, and have remained there ever since.

The villagers are mainly of the Gu surname, and the clan leaders and the current village chief are all from the Gu family.

Over the centuries, the number of households in the village has always been eighty-one, never more and never less, which is one of the three village rules.

The first of the three village rules is that the number of households in the village must be maintained at eighty-one; if there is one more, it will be expelled, and if there is one less, it must be replenished.

The second village rule is that the eighty-one ancestral homes can only be repaired and not demolished or moved. This means that the houses in the village must remain in their original state from the time they were built, and even if they collapse and become uninhabitable, they must be rebuilt in the same location.

The first two village rules, though seemingly inhumane, are still acceptable, but the third village rule seems a bit absurd.

The eighty-one households in the village must forever support the Taoist priests in the village's Taoist temple, and must not defy them, or they will be expelled from the Gu family.

The penalty for breaking the first two village rules is the same as above!

These three village rules have never been violated. Although several hundred years have passed and the current villagers no longer know where the rules originated, they all understand one thing: the villagers in the village rarely get sick or suffer from disasters, and most families live in peace. The eighty-one households, with a total of 312 people, have 109 centenarians, and those who are ninety years old can still work in the fields during the busy farming season. They rise with the sun and rest with the sunset, and within a radius of over two hundred miles, only this village has so many long-lived people, which is truly astonishing.

On the contrary, those who have moved out of Gujing Village, although no family has suffered a major disaster, have far fewer centenarians than those in the village.

The village is called Gujing Village, and the Taoist temple that is supported is called Gujing Temple.

Gujing Temple is built on a small hill in the middle of Gujing Village, and the eighty-one ancestral homes of the Gu family are arranged around the village in an orderly manner.

If someone could look down from the sky, they would see a surprising scene: the arrangement of the eighty-one houses is exactly the same as the Eight Trigrams, and the temple is precisely at the center of the trigram.

Unfortunately, no one has ever come to the high altitude above Zhongnan Mountain to discover this scene. Even if someone were to fly over in an airplane, they would only see a white mist covering Gujing Village and Gujing Temple, making them invisible.

Gujing Village is small, and Gujing Temple is even smaller, not only small but also dilapidated.

The temple is very old, built at the same time as Gujing Village. Over the centuries, the temple has not been repaired. The red walls have long collapsed, the two large doors are leaning to one side, the tiles in the courtyard are cracked, and the main hall of the temple is in a state of disrepair.

It seems like a temple without any incense offerings.

In fact, this temple has indeed had no incense offerings for hundreds of years. Few people have ever entered Gujing Temple, even the local villagers do not enter it casually. Only the clan leader or the village chief enters the temple for major events, and the temple is rarely seen by anyone on a regular basis.

This is because there are only three and a half people in Gujing Temple.

One is a dirty old man who often dozes under an old locust tree in the temple courtyard, wearing a Taoist robe.

Another is a middle-aged man sitting in front of the Three Pure Ones statue in the Three Pure Ones Hall, holding a rusty iron sword, who never speaks.

There is also a young man in his twenties who spends most of his time in the temple's scripture pavilion and rarely goes out.

As for the half person, it is the eldest disciple who left Gujing Temple eight years ago and never returned.

...

As the sun set and night fell on Zhongnan Mountain!

Most of the households in Gujing Village had already started cooking dinner. A moment later, a middle-aged woman from the thirty-ninth household walked out with a wooden bucket and headed towards the temple on the hill behind her house. She placed the bucket in the middle of the dilapidated temple gate, bowed respectfully towards the temple, and then turned and left without looking inside.

This is a rule that has been followed in Gujing Village for hundreds of years: every meal, one household delivers food to the temple gate.

The dirty old Taoist under the locust tree opened his cloudy eyes, slowly stood up, walked to the gate, picked up the bucket, and returned to the locust tree. At this time, the middle-aged man holding the iron sword in the main hall also slowly walked over, and the young man from the scripture pavilion came last. The three of them sat cross-legged under the tree, opened the bucket, and found freshly cooked rice and three home-cooked dishes inside. The old Taoist, the middle-aged man, and the young man each picked up their chopsticks and began to eat.

The scene of eating was very strange. The three of them did not speak a word from start to finish, only the sound of chewing could be heard. They ate very slowly, chewing each mouthful exactly thirty-six times, so a normal dinner took them nearly an hour.

After the meal, the three of them put down their chopsticks. The dirty old Taoist's index and middle fingers suddenly trembled without warning. He frowned, then took three copper coins from his robe, weighed them in his hand, and threw them on the ground.

The dirty old Taoist and the young man both looked at the copper coins on the ground. The young man's expression changed, looking puzzled, while the old Taoist looked towards the northwest of the temple without speaking.

The middle-aged man holding the iron sword stood up, took the bucket, and placed it outside the temple gate, then returned to the Three Pure Ones Hall. A moment later, a crisp sound came from the hall, and the middle-aged man returned with a twenty-centimeter-long, rusty iron piece and handed it to the young man.

The young man stared at the half-remaining iron sword in his arms and said, "Uncle, why do you have to do this?"

The middle-aged man said calmly, "You are leaving the temple, and I have nothing to give you. Besides, for me, whether the sword has a point or not doesn't matter."

The old Taoist, who had been looking towards the northwest, also picked up the three copper coins and handed them to the young man without saying a word. This time, the young man did not refuse, but took them and sat back down under the locust tree.

The three of them did not return to their respective places but sat cross-legged under the locust tree.

...

Two days ago, in the northwest of Zhongnan Mountain.

Three off-road vehicles with Hebei B license plates arrived at the foot of Zhongnan Mountain. The cars could not go further, and to enter the mountain, one had to walk. After the cars stopped, a few people from the first two cars stood by the side of the road, bowing. A middle-aged man in his fifties, wearing a black tight-fitting overcoat, with a furrowed brow and a very haggard expression, walked out of the last off-road vehicle.

The middle-aged man looked at Zhongnan Mountain and seemed to take a long breath. He turned to a man in his thirties beside him and said, "Jinzhong, you come with me up the mountain. The others wait here."

Jinzhong hesitated and asked, "Boss... We should bring more people for convenience, in the mountains..."

The boss waved his hand and said calmly, "Just you and me, more people would be more trouble."

Jinzhong knew that once his boss made a decision, it would not be changed. He did not argue, took a large travel bag from the car, and followed the middle-aged man into the mountain.

For two people who were used to a comfortable life in the city, entering Zhongnan Mountain was like a long march. They walked for two days, and their bones ached, but neither of them complained.

The more the middle-aged man approached his destination, the more his haggard expression eased. The boss did not complain, so Jinzhong naturally could not complain either.

Two days later, as the sky was getting dark, Jinzhong and the boss had already reached the top of a mountain. Both of them were holding binoculars, looking towards the northwest. In the lens, the outline of a small village could be seen. The boss took a deep breath, his tense expression completely relaxed, and he sat down, panting heavily.

"Boss, we should be at our destination now."

"Zhongnan Mountain... People only know that there are hermits and the founder of Taoism, the Complete Perfection School, in Zhongnan Mountain. But few know that there is also a Gujing Temple in Zhongnan Mountain." The boss got up, walked towards the foot of the mountain, and said, "From now on, whatever you see or hear, keep it to yourself, and don't say a word."

Jinzhong was taken aback. Even though he was close to the boss, his expression became serious. He could not remember the last time his boss had warned anyone.

Since he had followed the boss, no one in their territory could be warned by his boss anymore.

Three and a half hours later, it was completely dark, but fortunately, the two of them had quickened their pace and finally arrived at Gujing Village. At this time, most of the lights in the village were already out, and most of the households were resting. Jinzhong and the boss did not stop but headed straight for Gujing Temple on the hill in the middle of the village.

When they reached the foot of the hill, the boss told Jinzhong to wait below while he went up to the temple alone. The dilapidated temple made the boss slightly doubtful for a moment, but he soon returned to his usual state and stood at the gate, tapping the leaning temple door with his fingers.

A moment later, a young man walked up to the boss. The boss did not hesitate and said, "Descendant of Chen Liang, if the Chen family encounters trouble, they can seek refuge at Gujing Temple in Zhongnan Mountain, as instructed by our ancestors."

The young man nodded and said, "You can rest wherever you like. I will go with you out of the mountain when it is light."

In Tangshan, Hebei, there is a vast commercial empire, the Baoxin Group.

Half of the energy and mineral resources and real estate in Hebei Province are controlled by the Baoxin Group, and its name is always at the forefront of the business map in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei triangle region. In recent decades, it has also extended to other regions, but Baoxin is a hidden existence.

Ordinary Chinese people do not know about the existence of the Baoxin Group and have never heard of it, and even most businessmen in the business world do not know about it.

Baoxin is a collective name, a consortium controlling dozens of companies. Fewer people know that the leader of Baoxin is surnamed Chen. Each time the domestic rich list is released, the direct descendants of the Chen family will smile at the names at the top of the list, with a hint of disdain.

In China, some people, even if you pay them to be on the list, will kick you out. Clearly, the Chen family belongs to the category of people who do not want to be on the list.

The rise of the Baoxin Group, the Chen family, is little known, but those who know seem to have heard a rumor: the ancestors of the Chen family had some entanglements with a Taoist during the war, and from then on, the Chen family began to rise.

The Chen family never argues about these things, neither denying nor admitting them, because most of the Chen family do not know how they built this commercial empire. Only the leader of the Chen family knows the secret.

In this generation, the leader of the Chen family is Chen Sanjin.

He is now standing at the foot of Zhongnan Mountain, in front of the gate of Gujing Temple!