fifth form

Chapter 3524 The Patient Laozi
"Sima Xiangru is really generous; he sent me such a wonderful gift after not seeing me for several years!"

Zhang Xuezhou enlightened the Suihou Pearl, turning it into a lucky charm. He had also once received a dragon and phoenix lucky charm as a gift from the King of Huainan.

The Suihou Pearl is a powerful weapon for combat, while the Dragon and Phoenix Pair is a tool to assist in the cultivation of magical arts.

Although he hasn't achieved anything significant in terms of manipulation techniques over the years, he is very familiar with manipulation tools.

The Sun Star Chart is indeed a type of luck-enhancing device. This particular device is very crude and primitive, but after Zhang Xuezhou acquired it, it stirred up specks of golden light indicating luck, which means that the device is still intact and functional.

"Sun and Star?"

As Zhang Xuezhou reached out and touched the astrolabe, he felt a sense of clarity throughout his body, and the gloom that had weighed on his heart due to the events at the Void Heaven Palace gradually faded away.

As Sima Xiangru said, wearing this amulet can indeed dispel gloom and ensure peace.

Zhang Xuezhou felt as if someone had delivered a pillow to his head when he was sleepy, and he could be considered to be very lucky in Chang'an.

"Where exactly is the Void Heaven Palace hidden?"

As the gloom dissipated, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't help but ponder the location of the Void Heaven Palace.

The Void Heaven Palace was a gift from Houtu, but Hongjun tampered with it.

If one wants to unravel the mystery of the Void Heaven Palace, perhaps the only way is to search for the Investiture of the Gods text, as Hongjun said, so that it may be possible to determine the relevant situation.

"Old Candle, do you know where the Investiture of the Gods is?"

Zhang Xuezhou walked out of the East Sima Gate and returned to his residence.

With Zhu Jiuyin, who was familiar with Hongjun, by his side, Zhang Xuezhou had little difficulty finding relevant clues.

He found Zhu Jiuyin, who was hanging in the side room looking rather sullen, and pulled him down from the rope.

"What did you call me?" Zhu Jiuyin asked in surprise.

“If you’re not afraid of causing trouble in Chang’an, I can address you respectfully,” Zhang Xuezhou shrugged.

"Fine, call me whatever you want!"

Zhu Jiuyin responded with a heavy heart.

Ren Anran insisted on following Zhang Xuezhou, and Zhu Jiuyin had no choice but to stay overnight at Zhang Xuezhou's residence.

When you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head; you can accept some minor grievances regarding how you're addressed.

"What, did An Ran scold you again?"

Zhang Xuezhou watched with great interest as Zhu Jiuyin suffered a setback.

Although he lost his physical body, Zhu Jiuyin still possessed the strength of a great cultivator in the Three Realms, only slightly inferior to his physical form. There weren't many cultivators who could defeat Zhu Jiuyin. If he was feeling frustrated and unhappy, it was most likely due to Ren Anran.

"She thinks I'm too talkative," Zhu Jiu said.

"What did you say?" Zhang Xuezhou asked curiously.

"Daozi hasn't opened his tongue yet, so learning Chinese is too slow for him. I always said that learning Chinese characters is useless and there's no need to put so much effort into it!"

Zhu Jiuyin replied sullenly, and Zhang Xuezhou felt that Zhu Jiuyin deserved to be reprimanded.

The realm techniques of Nanzhanbuzhou are diverse and abundant, with each sect and school having its own unique techniques, numbering in the thousands. It is a melting pot for the development of realm techniques, and if you want to embrace all kinds of techniques, you can only choose the Han Dynasty, the largest country in Nanzhanbuzhou.

While powerful kingdoms like those in Beiju Luzhou possess immense strength, they lag far behind in terms of humanistic cultivation. They either rely on the nine traditions of the Three Holy Lands and Six Ancestral Lands or develop by borrowing demonic power, resulting in a very narrow range of options.

To the west, however, lay the control of schools of thought such as Zoroastrianism and Western religions, whose content was extremely limited. Learning the Great Chinese language, becoming familiar with the imperial archives of the Han Dynasty, and engaging with Confucianism—the school most adept at assimilation—was Ren Anran's inevitable and only viable path.

Only by opening up this path can Ren Anran make up for her own and Zhang Xuezhou's shortcomings, or provide a more suitable way of cultivation for people in the real world.

This is Ren Anran's cross-disciplinary study abroad opportunity, which is hard-won and involves the hopes of many people. How could Ren Anran let Zhu Jiuyin stop her?

"If you don't learn from Daozi, be careful you won't be able to keep up in the future!"

Zhang Xuezhou made a comment, which startled Zhu Jiuyin.

Zhu Jiuyin was fluent in the language, and could communicate in almost any place in the Three Realms. However, while he could speak fluently, he did not understand the relevant written language.

He can communicate in Mandarin, but Zhu Jiuyin doesn't recognize Chinese characters.

He walked back and forth a few steps, took out some bamboo slips left behind by Gongsun Hong in the mansion, and after flipping through them, Zhu Jiuyin felt that at least 60% of the text could not be deciphered.

Zhang Xuezhou's reminder immediately plunged Zhu Jiuyin into anxiety, as he felt he was about to begin learning to write.

"Tell me about this Investiture of the Gods!"

Seeing that Zhu Jiuyin was messing around on his own, Zhang Xuezhou had to remind him again.

"The Investiture of the Gods is a treasure used against the Heavenly Court. It can seal those Heavenly Court gods who cannot be killed into it and prevent them from being reborn," Zhu Jiuyin pondered. "This list belongs to Laozi of the Human Sect, and only he knows its whereabouts!"

"Laozi?"

"That's the Laozi who played the One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones game and killed himself," Zhu Jiuyin nodded and said, "He still has a Pure One clone in the Celestial Court called Laojun. You can go to the Celestial Court and ask Laojun. If Laojun still remembers, that's fine. If he doesn't remember, then no one will know where the Investiture of the Gods is!"

"This seems to be a troublesome matter!"

Zhang Xuezhou murmured to himself.

Let alone whether Laozi knew the whereabouts of the Investiture of the Gods, even if the Investiture of the Gods were in Laozi's hands, it would be difficult for him to access it.

If he couldn't make Laozi and others form a closed loop of erroneous cognition like Zhujiuyin, how could he interact with these top cultivators?

"You must contact Laozi immediately and tell him about this... In short, you must contact Laozi to find the Investiture of the Gods, otherwise you may all perish!"

Zhang Xuezhou urged Zhu Jiuyin a few times, but found that the words Hongjun had entrusted to him were vague in his mind and difficult to communicate verbally. He had no choice but to briefly summarize them and entrust them to Zhu Jiuyin.

"Why are you trying to scare me with something like death? I'm practically dead already," Zhu Jiuyin muttered. "Besides, at least I can still live for a while here. If I go to Laozi and he has an attack and takes me straight to his furnace to be refined into pills, who am I supposed to complain to then!"

"Is Laozi sick?"

"He turned himself into three, and the whereabouts of the other two are unknown and have not been recovered to this day. Do you think he wouldn't get sick in this situation?"

"Is it serious?"

"It's very serious. He always feels like he has a serious illness. Every year and every month, he goes to the Tushita Palace to refine pills to cure his illness. Moreover, he can refine all kinds of strange pills. He will try any new or unfamiliar pill-refining materials he sees. Using dragons in medicine is something he has often done over the years. I used to be afraid of him, let alone seeing him in his current state!"

"That's a bit crazy!"

Zhang Xuezhou used to think that Jinxia Yuanjun of Dongtianmen was crazy for conducting biochemical experiments, but he never expected that Laozi, one of the Three Pure Ones, was even crazier.

Thinking back to the fact that he had taken the elixir from the Tushita Palace, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't help but feel a little remorseful, realizing that he had been incredibly audacious at the time.

If it weren't for the Jade Emperor's help in cleaning up the mess, he would have inevitably been thrown into the alchemy furnace and turned to ashes if Laozi had discovered him.

As Zhu Jiuyin continued to recount Lao Jun's past actions, Zhang Xuezhou felt a throbbing headache. He realized that communicating with Lao Jun was risky, and asking about Lao Jun's trump cards and magical treasures would be even more difficult.