Two Realms: Starting with transmitting the Taiping Jing to Zhang Jiao

Since Zhang Daoling established the Twenty-Four Administrative Offices, these offices have always been responsible for registering the names of Daoist citizens, managing household registration, and even assisting with local taxation and education.

Now that Lutangzhi is being used as a charitable institution, in addition to Chongxiantang, which is used for the disciples to live in, the central Chongxutang, Jingshi, and other large and small houses were crowded with infected people that very night, and the cries of weeping and wailing could be heard for miles.

People infected with the disease were still being carried in by government officials, and the entire Lutangzhi was in a state of panic. The people at the foot of the mountain were terrified of the place and dared not approach it.

In the evening, a piece of news spread throughout Lutangzhi.

The immortal who descended to earth half a month ago, causing nine out of ten houses in Mianzhu County to be empty, will soon set up an altar here to burn talismans and turn water to save the disaster victims!

It was kept secret at first, but then everyone knew about it.

The idea of ​​immortals using their magic to save all people is something that only exists in legends, and even for the disciples of Shirodoji, it is full of unknowns and wonders.

Moreover, with the plague spreading and the imperial court's relief efforts delayed, the people are living in constant fear at home, with some even abandoning their homes, burning down their houses, and fleeing with their entire families. Now that the news has spread that the immortals will bestow talismans to save people, it has given the current Lutang government a sense of reassurance.

Yi Chuan set up the altar in an extremely mysterious way, not allowing others to participate. Lu Tangzhi's disciples only saw Yi Chuan busy all night, occasionally carrying a basket up the mountain and then returning with a heavy load.

As night fell, the outline of a Dharma altar gradually appeared in the mountain gate square.

Some of the bolder ones went closer to observe and discovered that the altar set up by Yi Chuan was much more complex and intricate than they had imagined. It was covered with prayer flags and inscribed with many mysterious and enigmatic scriptures.

What we cannot understand is unknown, and the unknown represents possibility.

As a result, a hidden sense of fear and anticipation began to emerge among the disaster victims in Lutangzhi.

"Burning talismans into water is utterly absurd!"

In the secluded room, the scholar on his sickbed slapped the bed and then coughed violently, as if he were coughing up his internal organs.

"A fabricated witchcraft scandal has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people!"

Even a wise and sagacious emperor like Emperor Wu of Han, due to his reliance on alchemists seeking immortality, caused the national treasury to be emptied and the population of the empire to be halved!

"The past is still fresh in our minds, why does the magistrate still believe in that sorcerer!"

The scholar's eyes were filled with resentment.

He was originally recommended for his filial piety and integrity in Julu and should have had a smooth official career, but he was sent by the Commandant of the Capital Region to search for some altar for worshipping the heavens. He wandered all over the country and eventually ended up in Mianzhu County, where he unfortunately contracted the plague. He had long been disgusted with the sayings of gods and prophecies.

Zhang Xiu listened from the side, then gave an awkward smile. Come to think of it, he was one of those sorcerers that the scholar deeply hated.

"Of course I know."

In the dim light, Fei Shi sat opposite Zhang Xiu, covering her mouth and nose, her knuckles tapping forcefully on the table.

"Whether he is a true immortal or not, I have already given him a way out. He is unwilling to leave and instead shamelessly claims to be able to treat the disaster victims. So he has no reason to blame me."

"If such supernatural powers truly exist, I will certainly report this to the imperial court and receive commendation!"

"If he's just being deliberately mysterious, then we can charge him with bewitching people and imprison him!"

Fei Shi's eyes narrowed. He had already asked Lu Tangzhi's disciple, and this "Descended Immortal" had nothing extraordinary about him except for the intimidating appearance he made half a month ago.

For the past two weeks, his life in Lutangzhi has been no different from that of an ordinary person, and in some aspects, he has even been worse off than an ordinary person.

Zhang Xiu listened to their conversation, his Adam's apple bobbing, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

To be honest, he wasn't sure if this "deity" truly possessed such supernatural powers...

-----------------

The next morning, just as dawn broke, the disaster victims discovered the altar that had been erected in the square.

County Magistrate Fei Shi and Chief Sacrificer Lu Tangzhi sat on the Chongxuan Terrace atop Chongxu Hall, a place that was both far from the disaster victims to avoid infection and offered a panoramic view of the square.

This is also the place where Yi Chuan appeared half a month ago.

Disaster victims were still being carried in by yamen runners, and the bodies of those who hadn't made it through the previous night were being carried out. People were coming and going at the mountain gate. Fei Shi watched from afar, feeling utterly exhausted.

"In the ten years before the Jian'an era, two-thirds of the deaths in Nanyang were due to typhoid fever, and seven out of ten of them were from this disease."

"In the three years that followed, more than 10,000 people died in the epidemic in Yangzhou..."

Zhang Xiu slowly spoke: "How can human strength overcome nature? Even if you manage to isolate Mianzhu from the world, disasters and epidemics will not spare Mianzhu."

"How could I not know? But I'm in a position to do my job and leave the rest to fate," Fei Shi sighed, putting down his teacup.

The tea was old and bitter, and Fei Shi's voice was somewhat muffled and hoarse.

It wasn't until the sun was high in the sky that disaster victims began to frequently peek out from their houses.

They all knew that today a celestial being would burn talismans and transform them into water to save the disaster victims.

They waited and waited, but the blue-robed immortal still showed no sign of them, and restlessness and unease began to spread throughout Lu Tangzhi.

"It's already past 9 AM, where is that immortal?"

Fei Shi, whose scalp was burning from the sun on Chongxuan Terrace, looked at Zhang Xiu beside him.

Zhang Xiu's face was tanned dark red by the blazing sun as he gulped down what seemed to be the umpteenth cup of tea his disciple had poured for him.

"I don't know, it's been several hours since I last saw you."

Seeing that the disaster victims below were starting to become restless, Zhang Xiu asked his disciple beside him,

"When we returned to the altar, the master said that we should fast and purify our minds before opening the altar, and that we should not disturb him."

Upon hearing this, Fei Shi frowned and demanded, "How much longer do you need to observe the fast?"

The disciple stammered and immediately knelt on the ground: "Reporting to the magistrate, the Master... did not inform you..."

"Hmph! What a big face you have, making this magistrate wait here!" Fei Shi sneered, slamming his teacup onto the table. The surrounding yamen runners and Lu Tangzhi's disciples immediately fell silent.

As the sun rose higher, the intense heat made everyone in Lutangzhi even more restless.

"Could that so-called 'immortal' have already run away, fearing punishment from the county magistrate?"

"The talk of immortals is just a rumor. I've seen that blue-robed Taoist priest; he's no different from an ordinary person."

These are ordinary people who had not witnessed any unusual phenomena half a month ago. They believe that the rumors about "immortals" are just hearsay and that Lu Tangzhi fabricated the story to boost his temple's popularity.

The temperature continued to rise until Magistrate Fei Shi could no longer bear it and ordered his men to break down the door and detain the 'immortal.' Amidst everyone's eager anticipation, the 'immortal' finally opened the door.

Yi Chuan, dressed in a blue robe, wearing a hibiscus crown he made himself, and holding a court tablet, strode out with his head held high, exuding an air of otherworldly elegance.

"This robe is strangely designed; it's completely different from my Twenty-Four Treatment Robes."

On the Chongxuan Platform, Zhang Xiu noticed the Taoist robe Yi Chuan was wearing. It was the robe Yi Chuan wore at Baiyun Temple in the 21st century, and it was quite different from the style of Taoist robes in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

"I'd like to see what this 'immortal' has up his sleeve!" Magistrate Fei Shi sneered, having waited for several hours and was already impatient.

Yi Chuan looked around at the terrified officials and disaster victims, and felt calm.

During his three years at Baiyun Mountain, he had also presided over many religious ceremonies with the old abbot, and was already very familiar with such matters.

What is the most important thing in performing a ritual?

Supernatural powers? Skills? Qualifications?

No, no, no, that old charlatan told Yi Chuan that when traveling, the most important thing is to "lie".

He himself could not be driven out of Rokudoji.

He still has no clue what the Dao Fruit that attracted him to this time travel is. Not only is he being kicked out, but he also doesn't know where he'll end up. What if he fails to complete his mission and is stuck in the Eastern Han Dynasty forever?

He had begun to miss the modern life of the 21st century, so he decided to "scam" a big one.

"It's time for you to witness the essence of Taoism accumulated over thousands of years!"

Yi Chuan silently recited the mantra and leaped onto the altar.

He looked around, and none of the hundreds of disaster victims and yamen runners dared to meet his gaze.

"The Three Jewels, in their compassion, will surely rise to a great gathering, for in this defiled world, it is difficult to reach the pure heavens. May their forms and spirits be purified, and may their wandering souls be guided to the Cloud Terrace..."

On the altar, Yi Chuan's solemn yet clear voice rang out, and the entire Lutangzhi suddenly fell silent. Zhang Xiu on the platform also sat upright.

The melody used by Yi Chuan in reciting scriptures was the "Ten Directions Rhyme" of the later Taoist school, which did not appear until the Song Dynasty and was completely unfamiliar to the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Although the disaster victims didn't understand it, they felt that it made sense.

"We humbly submit that Qinghua has expounded its teachings, opening the gates to salvation from suffering. Xishu has transmitted its scriptures, widely expounding the ways of deliverance. Now, the Jade Altar is surrounded by stars, the Precious Register is opened like clouds, accumulating the merit of nine returns and seven transformations, all returning to the Taiji. This liberates those suffering in the three evil paths and the five kinds of pain, freeing them from calamity..."

This was the "Qingxuan Jilian Flaming Mouth Iron Pot Food Offering," and for a moment the entire Lutang Hall resounded with solemn voices and continuous chanting.

Yi Chuan sprinkled water with willow branches, burned paper money in a copper basin, and threw white rice into a water vessel to begin the water-fire refining process. Then, he stepped out the Big Dipper constellation by performing the Big Dipper ritual.

After this complicated process, the people below were completely silent.

"Making talismans is quite a laborious task," Fei Shi chuckled softly as she watched from afar.

Zhang Xiu, however, widened his eyes, stood up, and held onto the railing, unwilling to miss a single detail.

As the chief priest of Lu Tangzhi, he naturally knew the significance of Yi Chuan's set of rituals.

He whispered to Lu Tangzhi's disciple, "Have everyone else memorize this entire procedure. Next time they impersonate a deity, just follow this..."

No one has ever seen a deity, so what makes Taoism claim that it can communicate with gods and immortals?

It relies on this cumbersome process that has been developed for thousands of years, setting up thresholds to keep ordinary people out.

Don't understand? That's exactly what we want—for you to not understand, but to remain skeptical while still not comprehending. That's exactly what Yi Chuan is doing right now.

For a moment, Zhang Xiu and Yi Chuan even felt a sense of kinship.

On the altar, Yi Chuan continued his actions, chanting and performing the ritual for more than ten minutes. Yi Chuan was already panting heavily, but when he saw that the eyes of the disaster victims below had changed from doubt to awe, and that they dared not even breathe, he knew that he had achieved his goal.

"We humbly beseech all the true saints and saints to relieve this place of its calamity and to guide sentient beings through this tribulation!"

With a loud shout, Yi Chuan finally picked up the talisman brush amidst the watchful eyes of the crowd.

Drawing talismans, presenting petitions, burning them, and pouring the liquid into a bowl—the whole process is completed in one go.

Chaos erupted at the scene. After the ceremony, the crowd had been completely intimidated by Yi Chuan and were now scrambling to grab the talisman water from his hands.

Yi Chuan knew that epidemics were commonplace in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the root cause of which was the chaos in the court and the outbreak of rebellions.

To quell the rebellion, able-bodied men had to be forcibly conscripted into the army, leaving no one to cultivate the land.

Without farming, there is no food.

People will die if there is no food.

When many people die, the rotting corpses lead to plague.

"It seems that not long after, the Great Teacher of Wisdom rose up in rebellion because of this?" Yi Chuan's mind raced, but his hands never stopped moving.

The constables, their voices hoarse from shouting, managed to maintain order among the disaster victims once they came to their senses.

Fei Shi frowned as he watched the disaster victims looting in the square from the Chongxuan Terrace.

"Hmph! He really is a heretical Taoist priest."

"If the talisman water is ineffective, then you can expect to go to jail!"

Seeing that Yi Chuan had finished casting the spell, all that was left was to wait for the effect. Fei Shi immediately left Chongxuan Platform and stopped watching this farce.

"Who are you, so wicked and deceiving the people?"

Just as the disaster victims were frantically swallowing the talisman water, a young but firm voice rang out in the square.

Standing on the Chongxuan Platform, Zhang Xiu looked in the direction of the sound and saw the scholar from Julu leaning against the doorway in the Jing Room, cursing.

"Utterly absurd, utterly absurd!"

"If a bowl of talismanic water could cure an epidemic, how could our great Han Dynasty suffer tens of thousands of casualties every time a plague breaks out?"

"These so-called immortals are useless to the world and of no benefit to the country; they are nothing but charlatans who deceive the world and steal fame!"

The scholar's eyes blazed with anger as he walked step by step toward the altar. Looking at the people kneeling on the ground in the square, calling for the gods and saints, his anger intensified.

He walked step by step to the altar, glaring angrily at Yi Chuan, who was drawing talismans.

"You audacious sorcerer! Are you still trying to create a false sense of mystery and harm the people?!"

Yi Chuan, who was drawing talismans, looked at the suddenly appearing young man in brocade robes and felt puzzled.

He wasn't a magnanimous person; he simply couldn't understand what the scholar was saying.

The pronunciation of characters in the Eastern Han Dynasty differed greatly from that in the 21st century. Lu Tangzhi's disciples wouldn't be so idle as to ask him how to say "demon" in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Therefore, there is only one possibility for this situation.

"I told you to queue, no cutting in line next time!"

Seeing the boy's excited expression and loud shouting, Yi Chuan found it annoying, so he grabbed the boy's chin and poured a bowl of talisman water down his throat.

"...glug glug"

The scholar was completely bewildered, but being infected with the plague, he was powerless to stop it and could only watch helplessly as a bowl of talisman water was roughly forced down his throat.

"Cough cough cough, you sorcerer... um?"

Before he could rebuke him, the scholar suddenly froze.

He smacked his lips, then looked at Yi Chuan with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty.

The talisman water contained porridge, millet porridge! Although it was very thin, he could tell the difference immediately.

There were other smells, like herbs, which he couldn't identify but were very familiar with.

The scholar was stunned for a moment, and the disaster victims behind him had already pulled him down, scrambling to kneel and beg Yi Chuan for his talisman water.

The burning of talismans and the dissolution of water continued until the sun began to set in the west in the afternoon.

After a day of performances, Yi Chuan returned to Chongxian Hall exhausted after the last disaster victim drank the talisman water.

In the main hall, Zhang Xiu, the chief priest, had been waiting for a long time. He picked up his teacup and put it down again, looking extremely uneasy.

Upon seeing Yi Chuan enter, Zhang Xiu hurriedly went up and bowed.

"What this person did today was truly eye-opening!"

"However, that little bit of rice porridge is just a drop in the ocean; it's probably a pipe dream to cure the epidemic."

"To avoid trouble from the county magistrate, you'd better go elsewhere to cultivate in seclusion as soon as possible!"

Zhang Xiu already knew that the talisman water he had used during the day was actually rice porridge.

He knew very well that millet porridge could only fill one's stomach temporarily; if it could cure diseases, then the Han Dynasty would not have suffered tens of thousands of casualties in every plague.

Having understood the meaning behind Zhang Xiu's words, Yi Chuan smiled slightly, looked at Zhang Xiu who was hinting that he should run away quickly, and after pondering for a long time, he spoke.

"My master once told me that if you live a life of seclusion and chivalry, no one will think you are an 'immortal'."

"But when you use magic tricks to deceive people, they often believe you."

People only believe what they see.

"As for those who cultivate the Tao like the Grand Master, they naturally see a little more than ordinary people, but once you get past that, they are no different from ordinary people."

After saying that, Yi Chuan smiled calmly, turned around and went back to his room.

Zhang Xiu frowned slightly, pondering the meaning behind Yi Chuan's words, when suddenly a disciple of Lu Tangzhi rushed in in a hurry.

"The...Master of the Imperial Sacrifices...something terrible has happened!"

The disciple stumbled and crawled, his voice trembling with a mixture of surprise and joy: "Today...today, all the disaster victims who drank the talisman water...all of them have recovered!!"

Clang!

Zhang Xiu suddenly stood up, the teacup slipping from his hand and falling to the ground.