One Qi Chaoyang

Chapter 105: 104: Family and Individual
Inside Zhennan Pass, flames shot up into the sky.

On weekdays, when it rains elsewhere, the house is often damp during the rainy season, but here it is dry all year round.

The flames broke through the clouds in the sky, and the sky was shining with the sun and stars regardless of whether it was day or night.

There is a sacrificial hall in the Zhennan Palace.

The sacrificial hall was filled with statues of gods. All of them were the same size, about twenty inches high, and were arranged from high to low. Each statue had the same posture, with its palms resting in front of the body.

Their names are engraved on the palms of their hands.

There is a lamp lit in front of each statue, and the light illuminates the statues, making each one look lifelike.

At the very bottom, there is an incense burner half a person's height filled with incense sticks.

At this time, there were two newly lit incense sticks inserted in it, and two people were standing in front of the incense burner.

One is middle-aged and the other is young.

The middle-aged man was none other than Lan Shaoxun, the Prince of Zhennan, and the young man was his only son, Lan Hui.

"Over the years, you have been working as a temple priest in Guangyuan Prefecture. I have never interfered because this is the tradition of our Lan family and is also necessary for cultivation. If you don't work in Guangyuan Prefecture, you should work somewhere else."

"But you have to understand that our practice of the Red Flame Divine Religion is to exercise divine authority, but we cannot fulfill the wishes of the incense devotees. How much protection the incense devotees can obtain by worshipping the Red Flame Divine Lord is entirely up to them. We can consecrate the statues for them and sell them amulets, but we absolutely cannot regard ourselves as the Red Flame Divine Lord."

"Because we can't bear the impact of endless incense wishes, we brought you here to tell you that among our ancestors, there were several extremely talented people. Because they didn't pay attention to the ancestral teachings, they always thought they could break the rules and blaze a new trail, so they responded to the incense wishes, but in the end, they all died in their prime."

"You have been smart since you were young, able to meditate, like to ponder magic, and have the talent for spiritual practice. So when you said you wanted to be a temple priest, even though you were still young, I didn't say anything. But in the past year, I heard that you have responded to incense wishes quite a few times, is that right?" said King Lan Shaoxun of Zhennan.

"Yes, father." Lan Hui replied with his head down.

"Tell me, why do you do this?" Lan Shaoxun asked.

"Because many people have been harmed by evil spirits, they cannot come to the temple at all, and the statues or tablets of gods they worship in their homes are also easily defiled."

"We are just people who borrowed the Scarlet Lord's divine fire. We are not the Scarlet Lord. This is the first sentence I recited when I was practicing. Until now, I have to recite it silently in my heart every day when I open my eyes. Have you forgotten it?"

"Father, I haven't forgotten." Lan Hui lowered his head and answered quickly.

"You didn't forget, but you didn't do it." Lan Shaoxun's voice was filled with anger, and he said, "You knowingly committed a crime. Do you think that everyone has no talent and is not as good as you? There are so many ancestors here, and everyone in the entire Red Flame God Sect is not as good as you?"

He felt that his son looked down on the people in the world.

"My son doesn't think so. He just thinks they are suffering too much," said Lan Hui.

"Happiness is rare in this world, and suffering is the norm in the world." Lan Shaoxun was really angry. He felt that his son had a problem with his thinking.

"How many people can you manage?" Lan Shaoxun yelled, "Our family is facing a disaster of extinction, you come and manage it!"

Lan Hui lowered his head, but at this moment he raised it up and looked at the rows of ancestral statues. He was silent for a while and said, "If there is no family, there will be no disasters in the family."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lan Shaoxun's eyes suddenly burst into fire. He turned around and slapped Lan Hui, who was knocked flying.

"Is that something you can say? You enjoy everything your family has, all of which was earned by the hard work of your ancestors, yet you say something like this, doesn't it hurt your heart? You only see the suffering of others, look down at the place where you are standing, look up at your ancestors, our own suffering is about to happen, doesn't your conscience hurt?"

Lan Shaoxun patted his heart, while Lan Hui half-lay on the ground, his eyes looking at a fire, it was not a fire, but a divine light. He said nothing, his eyes half-opened, everything was in a trance, he was familiar with the struggles of his ancestors, he knew that his ancestors had paid a great price to maintain the family's dominant position in Guangyuan Prefecture and the reputation of the King of Zhennan.

But over the years, he had worked there as a temple keeper and had indeed seen too much suffering. He felt that the lives of those people were like adventures in the dark. They seemed to be looking at the rich world with their eyes open, but the beauty of this world had nothing to do with them, and all kinds of accidents and illnesses would always plague them.

Disasters can come from demons, from one's own ignorance, from one's own narrow-mindedness, from the jealousy of others, or from the injustice of the world.

But he felt that he could not blame them. It was not them that were wrong, but the world.

"Reflect on your mistakes here, and reflect on them in front of our ancestors!"

Lan Shaoxun pointed at the rows of lights and statues, spoke loudly, then went out and said to the family guard guarding the door: "Lock it up for me. If you don't recognize yourself, I will treat you as if I don't have this son."

He came to his study angrily. In his heart, he felt both proud and disappointed with his son.

He was proud of his son, whose talent in cultivation was higher than that of his ancestors. At such a young age, he was able to respond to the prayers of the incense burners and borrow the power of God. However, to his disappointment, his son turned out to be a compassionate person.

If you feel sad about the sufferings of the world, you will not die a good death in the future.

A maid came in from outside the house with a calming and nourishing tea. This tea can calm people's minds and prevent them from getting dry and hurting their souls. It is a must-have tea for people who practice fire magic at home.

A woman happened to come over, stopped her, took the tea tray from her hand, and then waved her hand to let the maid go.

She carried the tea tray into the study and saw her husband looking at a painting there.

The painting was passed down from ancestors. It was a picture of a flame falling from the sky onto the sea.

It is said that the sea was the later vast sea of yellow sand, and a huge fire dried up the sea.

She put down the tea tray, picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea, then brought it to Lan Shaoxun. Lan Shaoxun took it, sighed, and said, "It is so difficult to inherit the legacy of our ancestors, protect the growth of the younger generations, and keep the family's prestige."

"There's a saying that goes 'after going through hardships and being reborn'. I think if Hui'er goes through some things, he will always figure it out," said the woman.

"The four words 'survive calamity and be reborn' have deceived so many people throughout the ages. Most people die after surviving calamity. If I am reborn, I am no longer myself. My family and relatives are gone, and my friends have all dispersed. What is the meaning of rebirth?"

"Everyone has his own way of living. If our Lan family encounters a disaster, we need to make some preparations, don't we?" the woman said slowly.

Lan Shaoxun knew that she meant to maintain hope for the family and leave a way out.

"If I kick my son out at this time, anyone with a discerning eye will know what we are planning. If every family follows our example, how can we survive this crisis?"

Lan Shaoxun said after a moment of silence.

"Why not try to let Hui'er get married first?" said the woman.

When Lan Shaoxun heard this, he fell into deep silence. He drank the tea in his cup. The woman refilled it for him. He drank it again and then spoke, "A family can make a responsible man put away all his pride. No matter how many dreams and willful ideas he has, as long as he gets married, he will only be able to bury them deep in his heart."

"If he wants to be willful, then you can't blame us for putting a bridle on him. Even if he is a wild horse, even if he is the wind in the wilderness, he will be tied here and restrained." After Lan Shaoxun finished speaking, the woman next to him showed a strange look and said, "You, so this is what you think!"

"There will always be different ideas at different stages of life. I will make arrangements so that Hui'er can get married as soon as possible." Lan Shaoxun put down the teacup and turned to leave the study.

(End of this chapter)