Me and countless me.

Chapter 200 Life in Lingtai Fangcun Mountain 6k
It is difficult to say whether some things are arranged by God. After all, people's personalities and the choices they can make are sometimes destined.

Just like Li Ke would never watch his entire family die, when necessary, he would be dragged into it. Li Ke, who knew that he could better help the people of this world move forward, wanted to figure out the logic of how this world worked.

So, the next day after he decided to work harder, Li Ke decided to find Patriarch Bodhi to find out the situation in this world.

"Oh? You want to know how the world works?"

Patriarch Bodhi looked at Li Ke, stroked his beard, and then asked.

"Are you talking about the operation of the dynasty, the immortal department, or the operation of heaven and earth?"

Li Ke was stunned for a moment, then clasped his hands and bowed.

"I want it all."

Patriarch Bodhi nodded.

"Then let's start with the immortal department."

Patriarch Bodhi paused.

"There are four categories in the world: humans, gods, ghosts, and monsters. They are all born from the womb, laid from eggs, born from moisture, and born from transformation. The classification depends on personal understanding. Some people call those who follow the way of heaven and earth and live in harmony with others humans, and the rest are monsters. Some people regard those who are like Pangu as humans, and those who are not like Pangu are not humans..."

Patriarch Bodhi continued to talk about the classification of species in this world in an eloquent manner, and carefully explained the operating rules of the gods and heavens. These were things that were not in the books that Li Ke had seen.

The monkey got bored after listening for a while and ran out to catch butterflies. Li Ke listened to these rules and thought about the problems in these rules.

Because according to Patriarch Bodhi, to become an immortal and an official, one must not only have sufficient ability, but also have sufficient merit. However, this merit is not something that exists between heaven and earth, but is recorded by some minor gods.

Most of the heavenly beings in the six realms of reincarnation, as well as the good people who are worshipped with incense and offerings, are similar to clerks. Once they do not do their jobs well, they will lose the salaries given by heaven and the offerings given by mortals, and they will have to reincarnate again.

Those who come from famous and upright families and practice Taoism and Qigong can serve in heaven after becoming immortals. Those who are not capable enough or have not done enough merit are mostly like such petty officials. Otherwise, they continue to practice immortality on earth instead of relying on the heaven to obtain the resources of the heaven.

As for people like the kings of the underworld and those who have done virtuous deeds enough to be remembered by countless people, if their merits are sufficient, they can choose to remain as officials or go into reincarnation after paying for their sins.

Of course, you can also see if your merits are enough to enter the immortal path.

After a disciple from a famous and upright sect comes out, if his cultivation is sufficient and his resume is good enough, he can go directly to the Thirty-Three Heavens to study immortal arts and magical skills. He doesn't have to pay attention to these mundane things and can follow people like Laojun to do research and enjoy a peaceful life.

And it is very simple to get promoted to a higher position.

Come to earth to do good deeds and slay demons and monsters.

To sum it up.

The gods in heaven also have performance appraisals. And merits are not only gained by saving the human race, but also by teaching monsters to be good, saving evil spirits that cannot be reincarnated for various reasons, restoring the earth veins of a place, making a barren area prosperous, and saving some endangered ethnic groups.

Of course, the race that fully meets these requirements is the human race, which has developed the most powerfully.

Because the good things done by your subordinates will always be counted as you, but the bad things done by your subordinates, as long as they are not directly instructed by you, will most likely not be counted as you.

For example, if you discover that there is a problem with a dam, you as a deity directly repair it, which is a good deed. But if you mobilize mortals, let them get wages to support themselves, and promote economic consumption, or the birth of some new tool, this is a lot of merit.

Therefore, when many gods come down to earth to earn merit, they basically choose the human race.

The overall atmosphere is that doing good things will bring good rewards, even though you may not be able to see it, and doing evil things will definitely bring retribution, even though you may not be able to see it.

The immortals who were included in the system could not affect the lives of mortals at will, unless they descended to the mortal world. However, if the immortals released spells on the mortal race on a large scale, causing huge casualties, the Thunder Department would immediately come out to beat you up if they saw it.

However, the court on earth is certified by the Heavenly Court. The Heavenly Court does not care about the change of dynasties of mortals. As long as you have not become an immortal, you can do whatever you want. No one will care if you do not kill mortals on a large scale. Officials and generals are fine in normal times, but when they encounter forces beyond the level of mortals, not to mention the protection of the gods, the incense and vows of all living beings, the blood and murderous aura are enough to give immortal cultivators a hard time.

Of course, if you have it too, that's fine.

"Master, that means as long as you don't use power beyond the ordinary, then even the Jade Emperor won't care about you, and everything is done according to the rules?"

Li Ke asked.

"You are right to call me a fellow Taoist, but another situation will arise."

Patriarch Bodhi reminded Li Ke and then spoke.

"That's the kind of person that God loves. Such a person can succeed no matter what he does. Even if he is ignorant and stupid, worse than pigs and dogs, he can turn misfortune into fortune, turn disaster into blessing, and even get help from the heavens."

Li Ke was stunned for a moment, and then he saw Patriarch Bodhi's expression looking at him, which was a little complicated.

"Disciple understands."

Li Ke didn't care about what Patriarch Bodhi said later. He was still focused on one thing.

That is, in this system, one does not have to worry about the gods in heaven coming down personally, or one does not have to worry about any gods doing something out of the ordinary for the sake of merit.

Human power can reverse the impact caused by the gods coming down to earth!

But it requires a lot, a lot, a lot of effort.

In other words, the gods who come down to earth are not necessarily a hindrance to oneself.

"Okay, today's lecture is over, you can go away."

After saying this, Patriarch Bodhi disappeared on the bed.

Li Ke sighed as he looked at his fellow brothers who were learning various skills.

His fellow brothers were of mediocre talent and had no great ambitions. Most of them knew that they could become immortals in no time, unlike monkeys who could do so in just a few days.

This one is really forcing people to cheat.

Many people don’t even know how powerful Patriarch Bodhi is. They just want to learn something from him so that they can support their families and have a place in the world.

The few who are ambitious all want to follow the path of God, or even meditate and practice alchemy.

After all, they don't know what Taoism is.

Because there was no mature Taoism in the Western Han Dynasty, they didn't even consider themselves as Qigong practitioners.

But Li Ke has also witnessed the abilities of these senior brothers in this year.

The eldest brother studied mechanical magic, so he can’t be said to be very strong, but he can make a wooden bird that can hover in the sky with his hands. He is a very strong guy.

The second brother studied music and the making of musical instruments, and wanted to create music that would be passed down for thousands of years.

The third senior brother studied medicine and wanted to practice medicine everywhere to accumulate good deeds. He also wanted to practice to the point where he could unravel the mysteries of the fetus. He planned to work harder in his next life by being born into a good family.

The fourth senior brother studied miscellaneous subjects, similar to mechanical engineering, but he also learned things like building houses, feng shui, and geographical surveying.

The fifth senior brother studied Feng Shui and fortune-telling, and was also the most ambitious one. He wanted to become a fortune-teller among the aristocratic families.

The sixth senior brother is good at making alchemy, so a small alchemy room was built for him on Fangcun Mountain. He and the third senior brother also built a small medicine garden.

The other brothers and sisters all learned similar things, and only a few of them seriously practiced Taoism.

There is nothing that can be done about it. I don't have much experience, qualifications, or talent. I can only try my best to live a good life.

"Even if one is ignorant, stupid, and worse than pigs and dogs, can one still turn misfortune into fortune?"

Li Ke closed his eyes and thought about something.

That is, if he were to take charge, could he save the army from three consecutive days of natural disasters?

The reason why Wang Mang was completely destroyed was that incredible scenes appeared near his army for several consecutive days.

First there was the bombardment of meteorites, then there was the thick fog, earthquakes, typhoons, and even floods and hail. And they were all on a relatively small scale, not everyone was unlucky, only Wang Mang's army was unlucky.

That’s right, Liu Xiu’s army was not affected at all!
This is true historical material.

Of course, the most critical reason for the failure was that the commander was too incompetent and the military dispatch could not keep up, but the problem was that Wang Mang had no one else he could trust.

And who can withstand this situation?
So, Li Ke gave up thinking.

"Damn it... Can you please have some shame after cheating to this extent?"

Li Ke sighed. The root cause of Wang Mang's failure was the land annexation that could not be solved. The problem with Wang Mang's decrees was that the big landlords did not listen to him, would not hand over their land, and resisted his decrees. Wang Mang's morality was absolutely fine. He was the kind that Li Ke knew he could not do. In some literary novels, Wang Mang could become a saint right away.

If you want to change the future, there are only two ways.

The first one is to become a powerful person and fight for the world on your own.

But his family's wealth was really average, and being a rich prince was no big deal, but he was dreaming if he wanted to compete with the real wealthy families. Moreover, even if he started a rebellion, the people who came to his side would be the people of various big landlords, otherwise he would be easily wiped out.

So Li Ke shook his head and rejected the idea.

The second is to be a bootlicker for Liu Xiu.

Liu Xiu was jealous of talented people. He would never use people who were better at fighting than him, because they were stupid and foolish. Only loyal people could become his capable men. Capable people could never stand out under Liu Xiu. Moreover, Liu Xiu did not kill meritorious officials. Instead, during the process of starting a business, the meritorious officials were forced to rebel by Liu Xiu.

Moreover, these talented people who were forced to rebel often beat Liu Xiu so hard that his mother didn't recognize him. However, Liu Xiu was still able to win by relying on unreasonable situations.

The more Li Ke thought about it, the more he sweated.

So he came to a conclusion.

"If I could become a Maximist... maybe I could still fight?"

Sitting up from the bushes, Li Ke thought of a way to win.

There are all kinds of knowledge in his mind, from daily Li Ke and French Li Ke provided by knowledge, from blast furnace to mineral identification, from compound extraction and synthesis, all in his Li Ke's mind!
Therefore, Li Ke couldn't help but look at his senior brother, and then after thinking for a while, he smiled, and then under the monkey's stunned gaze, he ran to his room, tore off a piece of cloth from his brocade clothes, and began to write. Yes, at this moment, there is no good paper in the world.

Cai Lun was a story from the Eastern Han Dynasty.

So, after Li Ke finished drawing the blueprint, he rushed directly into the eldest senior brother's room.

At this moment, his senior brother was studying a Lu Ban Lock, and Li Ke came to his side quietly, and then patted his senior brother who was studying the Lu Ban Lock.

"This thing is really ingenious. Lu Ban is worthy of being called..."

Li Ke's senior brother was fiddling with something in his hand when he heard a voice.

"Senior brother..."

The eldest brother's eyes suddenly shrank, and the Lu Ban lock in his hand almost flew out. Then he saw Li Ke holding a piece of cloth and looking at him with a smile.

"Junior brother! What are you doing!"

Li Ke gave his senior brother a brilliant smile, and then showed the cloth in his hand to his senior brother.

"Come, big brother, look at this plow, this thresher, and this thing called a bicycle..."

As Li Ke showed the cloth, his senior brother who specialized in mechanical engineering suddenly straightened his eyes. He grabbed the cloth from Li Ke's hand and looked at it intently.

"This, this... How ingenious... There is actually such a mechanical device, so that's how it is... It turns out to be like this..."

Li Ke's senior brother looked at the thing in Li Ke's hand in fascination, his eyes constantly showing expressions of obsession and desire, and then he heard Li Ke speak softly.

"If you want to get more patterns like this, Big Brother, you have to obey my orders and help me make some things..."

His senior brother said something without even thinking about it.

"Go through fire and water, Uncle Master!"

Li Ke: “…………”

Li Ke looked at his senior brother, and his senior brother also looked at Li Ke. Li Ke was silent for a while and then spoke: "Well, you should actually call me junior brother."

His eldest senior brother patted his chest and said, "The teacher calls you a fellow Taoist. How can I, as a disciple, go beyond that? Moreover, you have taught me such precious knowledge. Although I am already a disciple of Bodhi Patriarch and cannot call you a teacher, there is no doubt that you have taught me the Dharma. How can I call you a junior brother?"

Li Ke: “…………”

Damn that makes sense!

But before Li Ke could say anything, his senior brother spoke again.

"As for what you want to do, leave it to me. I will never refuse!"

Li Ke: “…………”

Li Ke looked at his senior brother with a simple face and covered his forehead helplessly.

"Okay, but you need to follow me to find Fourth Senior Brother and other people who are learning these miscellaneous subjects..."

As soon as Li Ke finished speaking, he saw his senior brother suddenly clasped his fists.

"Here!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the eldest senior brother left like the wind. Li Ke sighed helplessly and looked at a small hill not far from Lingtai Fangcun Mountain.

Before, Li Ke didn’t understand what was going on there, but now, with a lot of knowledge in his mind, Li Ke knows very well what is there.

There are iron mines and coal not far away. There is also a river with good water flow and some waterfalls not far away. With a little preparation, it can become a small water conservancy forging equipment.

Li Ke stroked his chin and began to think.

"How about the whole big one?"

And at this moment, his sixth senior brother who was an alchemist and his third senior brother who was a medical student appeared in front of him.

Li Ke smiled.

"Have you ever heard of chemistry?"

then--

"Everyone, work hard! Once the first batch of iron is forged, everyone will be able to easily get things like glass test tubes and stuff like wrought iron!"

Li Ke looked at the stove that was gradually being built and called out to his fellow disciples. Even among this group of fellow disciples, there was the shadow of Li Ke's second senior brother.

The cultured man like Second Brother was fooled by Li Ke using musical instruments from later generations. Although Second Brother was not interested in songs like Blue and White Porcelain, Jay Chou, and Zhou Jie, he had no resistance to various singing styles and new musical instruments from later generations. Therefore, he was pulled over by Li Ke to do hard labor.

Sun Wukong was also among them, but he didn't want anything. He just simply thought that digging holes and mining together was fun, and this guy was born with supernatural powers, so he had a lot of fun here.

The only request is that Li Ke tell more stories and the like.

At this time, Li Ke's fourth senior brother came over. Seeing the eldest senior brother throwing iron ore and other things into the furnace, he couldn't help but shuddered, walked up to Li Ke and bowed.

"Uncle Master, the paper pulp has been made. Is it true that we just need to hang it up and let it dry to make paper that can be written on?"

Li Ke nodded and nodded to his fourth senior brother.

"Yes, that's roughly it. Don't worry too much. The waste paper can be broken up and added back in. When the iron in the blast furnace is smelted..."

Yes, dozens of disciples from Fangcun Mountain were all mobilized by Li Ke, including those who learned fortune-telling, all of whom were tricked by Li Ke into doing hard labor.

But there are still many things that Li Ke needs to see by himself, so looking at the look on his fourth senior brother's face, Li Ke decided to go by himself.

So, Li Ke and his fourth senior brother went to a place that specialized in making paper.

While they were busy, on the Fangcun Mountain, Patriarch Bodhi watched the actions of Li Ke and others and couldn't help but touch his beard.

"Good, good..."

As he spoke, he flicked his whisk, and a bicycle, a curved plow, and a pile of exquisite rice paper appeared in front of Bodhi Patriarch. Even a cannon, a musket, a six-barreled object, and a pile of lead bullets appeared in front of Bodhi Patriarch.

What's more, a huge iron machine emitting steam appeared in front of everyone.

These were all materialized by Patriarch Bodhi using his magical powers. The creations on Li Ke's drawings were real methods of immortals.

The boy beside him looked at these new things in amazement and couldn't help but look at Patriarch Bodhi.

"Master, Junior Brother Wang Mang, what are the things he made used for?"

As he spoke, the boy picked up a musket, aimed his eyes at the muzzle, and looked inside, causing Patriarch Bodhi to shake his head.

So Patriarch Bodhi called back his boy, touched his head, and gave an irrelevant answer.

"He is not my disciple, but my fellow Taoist, so I call him Uncle Master. Also, his Taoist name is Li Ke, and you and I, outsiders, can just call him Taoist Li Ke."

Just looking at the things in front of him, Patriarch Bodhi couldn't help but sigh.

"What he did was to extend the things of the future to the present, creating prosperity for all eternity, but it is hard to say whether it is a blessing or a curse for him. You must know that supernatural powers are not as good as destiny. Even if you have made all the calculations, you can't do anything. What's more, if he gets involved, it will eventually cause chaos in the world and a great catastrophe. By then, I'm afraid that the star gods in the sky will come down to earth in advance, and even the heavenly court will be shaken... So don't call him Junior Brother."

Boy: “…………”

The boy was stunned when he heard this. It was the first time he heard the word "great catastrophe" from his master's mouth.

Patriarch Bodhi closed his eyes. He tried to calculate Li Ke's path, but felt that the secret was obscured. He tried to deduce and predict based on Li Ke's knowledge and personality, but what he saw was a disaster.

Li Ke will definitely stir up a bloody sea, but if he fails to become the ruler of the world, he will surely receive retribution.

But another deduction leads to another wonderful situation.

Patriarch Bodhi shook his head and stopped thinking about Li Ke, but he did not stop the plans of Li Ke and others. He just looked at Sun Wukong who was waving flags and shouting beside Li Ke and imitating Li Ke's singing. After thinking for a while, he made a decision.

"Let's spread the Dharma first, so as to avoid more troubles."

After saying this, Patriarch Bodhi began to think about which skills he should teach Li Ke.

But when Patriarch Bodhi looked in the direction of Li Ke, he couldn't help but smile.

"God's will cannot be changed, but destiny may not be..."

So, Patriarch Bodhi stretched out his hand and pointed, and the next moment, three bamboo tubes appeared in front of him. There were no words on the bamboo tubes, but they were engraved with the magic skills and immortal skills he had learned in his life. On the surface, they looked like Huangting, but if Li Ke accumulated enough virtue, he would be able to display all kinds of immortal skills on them.

"Give it to him when he leaves."

As he said this, Patriarch Bodhi closed his eyes and began to daydream, leaving Li Ke to mess around in the Slanting Moon Three Stars Cave.

So, three months later——

On the top of Fangcun Mountain, in the resting place for the disciples, there were a few large words written in black on white paper: 'The First Singing and Dancing Competition of the Xieyue Sanxing Cave in Lingtai Fangcun Mountain'.

Sun Wukong held the newly made guitar, stood under the spotlight, and sang the song "written" by Li Ke with deep emotion.

"Be a mara, be a cool mara..."

　There are still two thousand left. It’s half past midnight…

　　
　
(End of this chapter)