Supreme Golden Palace

Chapter 21: Eight Horses (Part )
But now Li Gongfu told Yang Jian that Dou Chi was secretly plotting to use him as a knife to kill Wang Yi. How could Yang Jian not be angry?

Yang Jian said sternly, "Keep investigating! I don't believe Dou Chi would want to kill Wang Yi for no reason. There must be something I don't know. Dig it out for me! I want to know what happened!"

"Yes," Li Gongfu responded directly, stood up, lowered his head and left the Wude Hall.

"Dou Chi, you old thief!"

Yang Jian's face was gloomy and his previous good mood turned extremely bad. The depression in his chest was difficult to relieve for a while, and there seemed to be a fierce light flashing in his eyes.

Upon seeing this, the eunuch Chen Dexin silently stepped back two steps, lowered his brows and kept his feet together.

"Humph,"

Perhaps Yang Jian had caught a glimpse of the little trick played by the eunuch Chen Dexin. He snorted coldly and said, "You little dog slave, you've got the chance. Go get my notebook."

"Your Majesty," the eunuch Chen Dexin bowed, walked to the nearby bookcase, and carefully took out a thin book.

Yang Jian roughly flipped open his notebook and pulled out a chicken-spur pen from the pen pouch at his waist. A chicken-spur pen, shaped like a chicken's spur, has a short, sharp tip and a strong nib, making it ideal for portability.

He held the chicken-leg brush and glanced at Chen Dexin. Seeing that Chen Dexin was holding the inkstone with both hands and serving beside him, he sneered, dipped some ink, and wrote on the notebook: The old thief Dou Chi bullied me and deserves to be killed!

At this time, Yang Jian regarded Dou Chi as a dead man. He was a man who held grudges and could remember the smallest things for a long time. Moreover, Dou Chi's plot was not a small matter, so Yang Jian naturally had to remember it severely.

The eunuch Chen Dexin lowered his head, not daring to look at Yang Jian's stern face, until Yang Jian finished writing, took the notebook, and slowly stepped aside.

After the outrage subsided, Yang Jian sat for a moment, then sighed, "It seems I was too merciful. This is why they had these inappropriate thoughts. They actually dared to disregard the majesty of Heaven and do such shady things. They are courting death!"

Obviously, the incident of Dou Chi made Yang Jian have an opinion about this group of old ministers. Yang Jian himself usurped the throne and obtained the country in an illegitimate way. At the beginning of the founding of the country, although he mainly appeased the important ministers of the previous dynasty, he continued to reward them with high positions and generous salaries.

However, as Yang Jian secured his throne, he began to think about clearing out these old officials from the previous dynasty. After all, if he didn't remove these old officials from the court, how could he recruit new people, reuse those loyal to the Yang family, and consolidate the Sui Dynasty.

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Secretariat,
The emperor's anger in Daxing Palace at this time had nothing to do with Lu Shang who was in the library.

In the T-shaped library, Lü Shang, dressed in a green official robe, sat on a Hu bed, leisurely holding a scroll of atlas, absorbed in his study. On the desk in front of him lay a dozen ancient bamboo books and four or five scrolls of atlas covered in cloth.

For the past two months, Lü Shang had lived and ate at the Secretariat, delegating official duties to his subordinates while he himself read in the library. During this time, he not only studied the books in the library's Jizhong collection, but also occasionally read poems and pictorial praises to pass the time, finding considerable enjoyment in the process.

He spent half a month reading the Jizhong Book, which recorded King Zhao's southern expeditions and King Mu's western journeys, and another month and a half carefully pondering its contents. In the Jizhong Book, he read about two unusual celestial phenomena during King Zhao's southern expeditions. Both instances described a five-colored light penetrating Ziwei, enveloping the sky, causing the twenty-eight constellations to disappear, and a massive earthquake to occur in Haojing. The year after the second unusual celestial phenomenon, King Zhao died in the Han River with his six armies.

The text focuses on the visions of Ziwei and the twenty-eight constellations. The rest of the text describes King Zhao's encounter with immortality, a story that takes up a considerable amount of space. It states that in his thirtieth year, King Zhao met a feathered figure in his dream and asked him for advice on the art of immortality.

The winged man said that King Zhao's wisdom was still lacking, making immortality difficult. Later, at King Zhao's earnest request, the winged man slashed his heart, opening his mind. Upon waking, King Zhao was sweating profusely, and for ten days he neither slept nor ate, reducing his desires and clearing his mind. He then dreamed of the winged man again, who gave him a green capsule, and only then did he return to normal.

The so-called winged people referred to immortals during the Three Dynasties!

"The Art of Casting the Heart with Seven Apertures," after Lu Shang pondered it carefully for more than ten times, he finally found a method of cultivating the mind. It said that people need nine orifices to become immortals. It also said that the human body has a heart. The human heart corresponds to the image of fire on the outside and contains gods on the inside, just like chaos.

The whole article borrows from "Zhuangzi: Responding to the Emperor", comparing the heart to the god of chaos. It says that if one drills a hole every day, it will take seven days to complete, forming a heart with seven holes. After the heart is completed, one can observe the changes in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and realize the truth of the way of nature. The heart is like a clear mirror, immune to demonic obstacles, and the path of the Tao will become clear.

"Unfortunately, this Seven Apertures Heart Forging Technique is clearly not something a mortal can cultivate. Only those who have reached a certain level of cultivation can master the Seven Apertures Heart Forging Technique. If a mortal opens a single aperture in their heart, they can forget about becoming an immortal, but they can become a ghost."

Even King Zhao of Zhou, who was personally instructed by an immortal, failed to cultivate a seven-aperture exquisite heart. For ordinary mortals without great opportunities, cultivating an exquisite heart is seeking death.

However, the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart was indeed extremely useful, which made Lu Shang a little jealous. With his now reborn real body, it was too dangerous to open the seven orifices. After he reached the pinnacle of humanity and became a true human, he might try the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart Casting Technique.

With this in mind, Lü Shang carefully copied the Seven Apertures Heart-Casting Technique onto a piece of silk and slipped it into his sleeve. Turning his head, he glanced at the seemingly endless library, its interconnected pavilions, and smiled.

Lu Shang gained a lot in the past two months. Among them, this Seven Apertures Heart Casting Technique can only be said to be above average.

Many of the books in the Dingzi Library hold special mysteries, among them are many magical skills of the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and even magical instruments and treasures that are hidden among the mountains of books and the sea of ​​ink, without showing any spiritual power. The biggest surprise among them is undoubtedly a scroll of the Picture of the Eight Horses of King Mu.

"Shi Yi Ji" records: The king drives eight dragon horses. One is called Juedi, and its feet never touch the ground; the second is called Fanyu, and it can run faster than birds; the third is called Benxiao, and it can travel thousands of miles at night; the fourth is called Chaoying, and it can chase the sun; the fifth is called Yuhui, and its fur is bright; the sixth is called Chaoguang, and it has ten shadows in one form; the seventh is called Tengwu, and it can run on clouds; the eighth is called Jieyi, and it has wings on its body.

The Eight Steeds of King Mu, discovered by Lü Shang, depicts these eight dragon steeds. The so-called eight dragon steeds can also be seen as eight types of dragons. Once the Eight Steeds Picture is unfolded, the eight dragon steeds can be summoned.

He stroked the painting of Eight Horses beside the table with his fingers, and at the moment of touching it, he seemed to hear the roar of a dragon.

In the past, Emperor Mu traveled west and entered West Kunlun to meet the Queen Mother. His chariot was the Eight Horses of Emperor Mu. Without the Eight Horses that could fly in the clouds, how could Emperor Mu, a mere mortal, have entered the beautiful Yaochi Lake?

It was a pity that although Emperor Mu had the opportunity to see the holy face of the Queen Mother of the West, he was not able to achieve the path to immortality. In the end, he only learned a method for maintaining health and returned to Haojing. Emperor Mu called it "Xihua Zhimiao Zhenqi". After returning to the West, Emperor Mu used this method to maintain his life.

"Records of the Grand Historian" said: When King Mu ascended the throne, he was already fifty years old; he died after fifty-five years of reign; as an emperor, he could actually live to be a hundred years old. This "Xihua Zhimiao Zhenqi" must have played a vital role in this.

(End of this chapter)