Chapter 76

The old man was carried by a strong man, and Zhao Chen led a group of people directly into the hall. Inside the hall, there was a wall of fire, radiating intense heat. Zhao Chen entered the hall, took two armchairs, placed them together, and laid several thick blankets inside before gesturing for the strong man to place the old man in it.

While Zhao Chen was doing all this, the old man watched him with a very calm gaze. Only after settling comfortably did the old man look at Zhao Chen and smile, saying, "I have long heard from Chao'er that you have a heart as pure as a child. Today, I see that it is indeed true!"

"Don't try to get close, old man! One thing is one thing!" Zhao Chen rudely interrupted the old man and bluntly said, "Since you are the grand elder of the Hidden Sect, you should understand that I have nothing to do with your Hidden Sect, right?"

"Of course, I understand that!" The old man nodded honestly, showing great agreement with Zhao Chen's words.

"Then that's settled!" Zhao Chen pulled over a chair and sat down opposite the old man in a rather ungraceful manner, looking at him and saying, "Since that's the case, why did you go to such lengths to find me?"

"It's not a big deal!" The old man, upon hearing this, looked at Zhao Chen seriously and said, "I only heard from Chao'er that a young man has recently come to Chang'an, whose expertise in the study of natural philosophy and mathematics is comparable to that of a master. I was curious, so I came to take a look!"

"Then what?" Zhao Chen's lips twitched slightly, and he looked at the old man with a blank expression, asking, "Just to take a look, nothing else?"

"Yes, just to take a look!" The old man seemed very honest, and after hearing this, he nodded and said, "Chao'er is the most intelligent child among my disciples. If even Chao'er feels inferior, I naturally have some curiosity!"

"Wait a moment!" Zhao Chen, hearing this, suddenly waved his hand at the old man, a bit puzzled, and asked, "The more I listen, the more it seems that you are also very proficient in the study of natural philosophy and mathematics?"

Old Qin had once told him that the Hidden Sect was established by the descendants of the eight ancient surnames, and that they would appear in times of chaos to restore order, a very mysterious organization. But now, listening to the old man, Zhao Chen found that they placed great importance on the study of natural philosophy and mathematics.

"The study of natural philosophy is vast and profound; the term 'proficient' is too much to bear!" The old man, upon mentioning natural philosophy, his expression suddenly became solemn. He sighed slightly and looked at Zhao Chen, saying, "Even someone like you, who is comparable to a master in the study of natural philosophy and mathematics, cannot claim to be proficient!"

Zhao Chen's eyes suddenly lit up. He had said this to Li Er before, and he never expected that someone would say it to him today. At this moment, Zhao Chen suddenly felt a sense of kinship.

In the current Tang Dynasty, everyone actually did not value the study of natural philosophy. Even his closest friend, Old Qin, did not really value it at heart. The reason, of course, was that they considered the study of natural philosophy to be a side path, far inferior to the orthodox Confucianism!

"Old man, what exactly does your Hidden Sect do?" Zhao Chen looked at the old man with fiery eyes and asked curiously, "I once heard an elder mention the Hidden Sect, saying that it was passed down from the eight ancient surnames and had the responsibility to restore order!"

To Zhao Chen's surprise, before the old man could speak, the strong man beside him let out a cold laugh, clearly finding Zhao Chen's words a bit foolish.

Zhao Chen glared fiercely at the strong man, about to retort, but then heard the old man's voice, "People always repeat what they hear. A baseless matter, if repeated long enough, becomes true!"

What a profound truth! Isn't this just like the famous saying from the future—lies repeated a thousand times become the truth!

"So, the story that the Hidden Sect is descended from the eight ancient surnames is a lie?" Zhao Chen blinked, looking at the old man and asked.

The old man laughed wryly and looked at Zhao Chen, saying, "Not exactly. If we trace the roots, we are indeed descended from the eight ancient surnames!"

Seeing the surprised look on Zhao Chen's face, the old man quickly explained, "It's just a surname! If we really talk about it, there are many surnames that have been passed down for a thousand years. It's just that some ancestors are more famous than others!"

Oh, so that's how it's passed down!

Zhao Chen, hearing the old man's explanation, immediately looked relieved. If that's the case, as the old man said, there are indeed many families that have been passed down for a thousand years, so everyone can boast about it.

"So, what exactly does the Hidden Sect do?" Zhao Chen, understanding the thousand-year-old lineage of the Hidden Sect, suddenly looked at the old man again, puzzled, and asked, "Why does it sound so different from what I've heard?"

"Ha ha!" The old man, upon hearing this, opened his toothless mouth and laughed, looking at Zhao Chen with great interest and said, "What you've heard are just rumors that we intentionally spread. It's also a way to protect ourselves!"

Seeing Zhao Chen looking at him in confusion, the old man paused slightly and smiled, saying, "In fact, the so-called Hidden Sect is just a group of scholars who can't even tie up a chicken!"

"Scholars?" Zhao Chen, upon hearing this, suddenly frowned, and thinking of what the old man had said earlier, he looked at the old man with fiery eyes and said, almost unable to contain his excitement, "Old man, don't tell me that you all study natural philosophy and mathematics!"

"Of course, not all of us study natural philosophy and mathematics!" The old man looked at Zhao Chen with a smile and said seriously, "There are also those who study classics, history, philosophy, the Eight Trigrams, medicine, divination, and astronomy!"

As the old man spoke, Zhao Chen was already stunned. This isn't just the Hidden Sect! It's clearly the Jixia Academy of the past, where all the schools of thought gathered, truly a place of a hundred schools of thought contending!

But as he thought this, a doubt flashed through his mind. The various schools of thought from the past had experienced the burning of books and burying of scholars by the First Emperor of Qin, and the chaos of the Five Barbarians, leading to the southward migration of the nobility. Many things had actually been lost in the transmission.

Could the Hidden Sect have inherited these traditions?

Thinking of this, Zhao Chen suddenly looked at the old man with hopeful eyes and asked, "Old man, can your Hidden Sect make the Zhuge repeating crossbow?"

"Hmm!" The old man, upon hearing this, was slightly stunned, hesitated for a moment, and finally, under Zhao Chen's hopeful gaze, nodded and said, "That was invented by Prime Minister Zhuge of the Shu Kingdom at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, right?"

"That's right!" Zhao Chen, seeing the old man nod, immediately became excited, rubbing his hands together, and then looked at the old man impatiently and asked, "What about the wooden ox and the flowing horse? And the steel-making technique? Does your Hidden Sect have them?"

"Yes!" The old man, hearing Zhao Chen's rapid-fire questions about things that had long disappeared in the Tang Dynasty, suddenly smiled and nodded, saying, "All the things you mentioned are preserved in the Hidden Sect."

Zhao Chen was completely shocked. These were all priceless treasures that had long disappeared in the tumultuous history. He never expected that the Hidden Sect had preserved them all.

At this moment, Zhao Chen even felt a strong desire to see these things!

"Since you've asked so many questions, can I ask a few as well?" The old man, seeing Zhao Chen's eyes shining, smiled slightly and looked directly at Zhao Chen, asking.

"Sure, go ahead!" Zhao Chen immediately sat up straight, adopting a posture of complete honesty, and said, "As long as I know, I will definitely tell you!"

"May I ask who your teacher is?" The old man, as expected, did not hesitate and immediately asked a question that put Zhao Chen in a difficult position.

"…The Immortal of the Peach Blossom!" Zhao Chen hesitated for a moment and then looked at the old man, saying.

The old man, upon hearing this, smiled ambiguously and then looked at Zhao Chen, continuing, "So, the utopia you mentioned must exist, right?"

"Of course!" Zhao Chen, upon hearing this, his heart skipped a beat, and he looked at the old man straight in the eye, saying without changing his expression, "That's where I grew up. How could it not exist?"

As he spoke, seeing the suspicious looks on the old man and the strong man's faces, Zhao Chen pretended to be angry and said, "Old man, you don't believe me?"

"I have lived for sixty years!" The old man, upon hearing this, did not rush to answer Zhao Chen but said thoughtfully, "I have seen a lot, but it's hard to imagine what kind of person your teacher must be, given your current expertise in mathematics and natural philosophy!"

The old man, as he spoke, his cloudy eyes suddenly shone brightly as he looked at Zhao Chen and sighed, "Yet, such a person, I have never even heard of, as if he appeared out of nowhere!"

"Old man, the world is vast!" Zhao Chen, hearing the old man's words, especially the last sentence, his heart skipped a beat, but on the surface, he remained calm, and he exaggeratedly laughed, "The breadth of your knowledge, I'm afraid, is limited to the Central Plains! But beyond the Central Plains, there are vast and extensive places, much vaster than the Central Plains!"

Seeing the old man listening attentively, Zhao Chen decided to take advantage of the situation and asked, "Let me ask you, have you ever been to Tubo? Have you ever been to Tianzhu?"

The old man honestly shook his head!

"That's it!" Zhao Chen, seeing this, said with great satisfaction, "The world is vast, and the Tang Dynasty is just a part of it. Farther away, there are places even vaster than the Tang Dynasty, with very different customs and cultures!"

Zhao Chen seemed very pleased. These people from the Hidden Sect, once stripped of their glamorous exterior, were just a group of scholars buried in books, not as mysterious as Old Qin had described!

And the so-called world-walking, the eight ancient surnames, were all smokescreens released by the Hidden Sect, which, after being spread by the world, had become a very formidable existence, even feared by Li Er!

Thinking of this, Zhao Chen suddenly had a bold idea. What if he could get the Hidden Sect to come out of hiding? What would happen?

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