From Under One Person: Sincere Journey Through the Heavens

then.

Over the next two days, Wu Gensheng, along with Wu Man, Yuan's mother, and the other preschool students, familiarized themselves with everything at Mingxin Academy under the guidance of their respective first-year students.

Then comes learning, building a foundation, and... working.

study--

The curriculum included Chinese poetry, math, English alphabet, and Chinese and foreign history. Even though it was only first grade and the curriculum was not in-depth, Wugensheng was still surprised by the richness of the subject matter.

He had also visited the Mingxin Elementary School, which was established in other provinces in cooperation with the Confucian Association and the Gongpai. The content taught there was very simple: literacy, reading, addition and subtraction within 100. But did the Mingxin Elementary School headquarters start teaching such a rich curriculum in the first grade?

As for the academic year system of Mingxin Academy, Wugensheng already knew that it consisted of six years of primary school, three years of middle school, and three years of university, for a total of twelve years.

Although there isn't a single college student yet, and even the middle school classes are still being established and perfected, Wugensheng can already imagine what kind of "monsters" the future college students of Mingxin Academy will be.

Foundation building—

Every morning and evening, even on rainy days, they would practice the Foundation Building Method in the indoor gymnasium.

Wugensheng also understood the Foundation Building Method. After all, the Confucian Society and the Gong Sect had cooperated, and this method was widely spread. People with qualifications could not use it, while people without qualifications had to cultivate from childhood to adulthood before they could step into the threshold of Qi Refining. Wugensheng knew that if Jiang Liu wanted to, he could probably let a person with no qualifications directly step into the door of Qi Refining, but why set up a threshold?

Mindset.

If you can't even persevere for twenty years, then don't even talk about spiritual practice. You'll only harm yourself and others. Just live your life honestly.

However, when he actually practiced the Foundation Building Method with first-year students and even other older students, Wugensheng realized that the Foundation Building Method of Mingxin Academy was different from the methods used in primary schools in other provinces and in the military.

The Foundation Building Method uses fist techniques as its foundation, breathing as its source, and human magnetism as its basis. People from other places can only practice it by strictly following these requirements.

It's not a big problem if the movements aren't perfect. After all, while people's body shapes are generally similar, the details are different. People can be tall, short, fat, or thin, so there will inevitably be differences in the details of their movements. The key is breathing.

This is the most difficult point to control.

But Mingxin Academy solved the problem with a catchy piece of music.

It's because when doing radio calisthenics, the teacher on stage would take out a radio, put in a cassette tape, turn the volume up to the maximum, and then a catchy female voice would ring out, shouting things like "The first set of radio foundation exercises," "Dancing Youth," "First movement," "One two three four, two two three four..."

With the accompaniment of the music, Wugensheng was surprised to find that the emotions of most people on the scene were stirred up. Unless they were deliberately perfunctory, their blood and qi were more active than usual, and the qi in their bodies spontaneously began to move slightly, flowing through every joint of their bodies, making the exercise twice as effective!

Ideally, as long as they are not affected by natural disasters or man-made calamities, or contract any incurable diseases, these children will live a healthy and carefree life.

[Integrating music into the foundation-building cultivation... You're truly something, Jiang Liu!]

Wugensheng was filled with emotion.

Finally, there's work—

Even prospective students must work, helping with tasks such as cleaning the school, washing dishes, and mopping floors under the guidance of first-year students.

They adhere to the philosophy of "no work, no food".

Upper-grade students, namely those in fifth grade and above, will be led by teachers to conduct internships in the cultural street or the entire Yuhang area, engaging in social practice.

Through learning, foundation building, and practice, Wugensheng gained a lot of insights, but he did not agree with Jiang Liu's way. After all, it seemed to be guiding people in the "right" direction while denying other possibilities. Although he was not the kind of person who wanted to stir up trouble, as a cultivator, he also had his own way.

There is no inherent good or evil in the Way; as long as one possesses both the skill and the Way, that is sufficient.

As long as everyone in Quanxing can attain the Way, they will naturally follow their path... What he seeks is actually the same as what Jiang Liu seeks.

The difference is—

Jiang Liu is building a gradually visible, tangible, and systematic "Dao," while Wu Gensheng believes he focuses more on the independence and diversity of Dao.

Therefore, in this matter, Wugensheng believed that he was a level above Jiangliu, after all, he could make the Dao present a more colorful future!

With this mindset, Wugensheng lived at Mingxin Academy for seven days and gradually got used to the lifestyle there. He also began to learn some of the academy's philosophies, wanting to combine and integrate them into his own principle of the unity of knowledge and action.

Wu Man, however, was caught in a dilemma.

Without him.

It was simply because Da Wen and Xiao Wu's backgrounds were too similar to his.

In terms of background.

Just as Wu Gensheng had guessed, Wu Man also came from a wealthy family, but she was not a direct descendant, but rather a concubine's daughter, and like Da Wen and Xiao Wu's mother, she was a Japanese woman.

It was precisely because of his mixed-race identity that he was disliked by his family from a young age.

He was born in Yokohama, Japan, but his father sent him back to his grandfather's homeland when he was young, saying that he could only be a complete person if he grew up in his homeland.

As a child, he was full of anticipation, but it was the beginning of his nightmare.

His grandmother regarded him as an "outcast" and often locked him in the cold ancestral hall, providing him with only one meal a day mixed with sand and gravel, and even beating him severely at the slightest provocation.

Even when the winter wind made his thin body shiver, his grandmother only gave him a tattered blanket...

When he turned nineteen, and because of the chaos of the world, he felt that he had seen through the coldness and warmth of human relationships, so he came to Yuhang, went to Daci Dinghui Temple, shaved his head, and became a monk.

But monks must practice and observe precepts in order to achieve mental stability. However, he could not bear it. One day, he caught a pigeon, broke its neck, cooked it in the forest behind the mountain, and ate the greasy food.

When the abbot discovered this, he didn't waste his skills, but simply said that he hadn't kept the precepts and sent him down the mountain.

This was his first time becoming a monk and his first time returning to secular life.

His second ordination was a return to his father's old path: going to sea to do business, traveling to Japan, and falling in love with a Japanese woman.

His Japanese birth mother was happy to see this and tried her best to bring them together, but his grandmother and mistress at home both opposed it, saying that he was corrupting the family's morals and would follow in his father's footsteps!

The situation escalated to the point where the grandmother and matriarch of the family even went to Japan themselves, where they unleashed a torrent of abuse like shrewish women…

Afterwards, the Japanese woman he loved couldn't bear it and jumped into the sea to commit suicide.

On one side was her family's grandmother and matriarch, and on the other was the person she loved—the rules of etiquette and novel ideas... made Wu Man feel utterly hopeless, and she chose to become a nun for the second time.

This time at Saionji Temple.

Time heals all wounds, and having survived that cruel childhood, one's mental resilience is undeniably strong.

So, in his spare time from cultivation, he would go down the mountain to drink, eat meat, and visit brothels, but he remained peaceful only in those places, not touching the women at all, and simply observing them quietly.

Drinking alcohol, eating meat...

As long as it doesn't get out of the temple's name, it's fine. After all, there's an old saying: "Wine and meat pass through the intestines, but Buddha sits in the heart."

Furthermore.

After becoming a nun for the second time, Wu Man did indeed resemble a highly accomplished monk, using his eloquent tongue to enlighten many worldly people who were troubled.

Therefore, the abbot of Saionji Temple temporarily allowed him to do as he pleased... at least he paid for his drinking and eating meat instead of killing animals himself.

However, the fact that he went to brothels was something that people would "talk about with relish." Even though the abbot of Xiyuan Temple was a highly respected monk, the mountain was still a human world, not a true sacred mountain. The reason for sending him down the mountain was that "Wu Man's worldly ties were not yet severed," but in reality, they hoped that he would return to the world.

pity--

Wu Man entered the world just as the Xinhai Revolution was beginning. In order to serve her country, she joined the ranks of enlightened people, and then... she suffered a terrible ordeal and her mind was shattered.

Then he left home to become a monk again. This time, he returned to Yuhang and entered Lingyin Temple, where he devoted himself to spiritual practice and seeking to empty the five aggregates.

But exhausted in body and mind, he neither knew why he was alive nor what the future held for his country. His ambition had long since vanished, so how could he possibly comprehend the meaning of emptiness?

and so.

He returned to secular life.

This last time he returned to secular life was not because of killing and eating meat, nor because he had not yet severed his worldly ties, but because he decided on his own to go down the mountain to cultivate.

The sight of a shattered land and the chaos of the world left him utterly bewildered until he encountered the Quanxing Sect and came to understand their ideals…

Regardless of Yang Zhu's philosophy, and only concerning the conduct and way of dealing with people within the Quanxing sect, Wu Man only saw four words:

Carpe Diem.

This is the meaning of his understanding of life!

Since people's hearts are in chaos and the world is in chaos, why not enjoy life while we can?

So he joined Quanxing and began to pursue pleasure. The first thing he did was to kill his grandmother, mistress, father, brothers, and sisters!

Because their presence made him unhappy!

Because his mother was Japanese—

His grandmother disliked him, his mistress treated him as an outsider, and his non-brothers and sisters treated him as a servant, whom they could beat and scold at will.

His father was rarely home, and even when he did return, upon learning of his situation, he would never ask why or say a word in his defense. He would simply tell him to endure it.

He hated everyone in his family, including his Japanese mother, hating her for marrying a Chinese man and for giving birth to him.

But after all that happened last night, he was still not happy, especially after he spared his birth mother's life, only for her to choose to hang herself. He felt a sense of confusion.

Why commit suicide?

Everyone who dared to pressure her is dead!

I don't understand...

After that, Wu Man killed many people, regardless of right or wrong, acting solely on his own whims. He would kill anyone, regardless of age or gender, whoever displeased him.

Even so, he was still unable to make any further progress in his spiritual development and remained stagnant.

And now.

He saw his twin brother, who came from a similar background to himself, but whose future fate was very likely to be different, and for a moment he felt a little unbalanced.

In other words, it's unpleasant!

If they make him unhappy, then he should take action and eliminate them. However, Da Wen and Xiao Wu's backgrounds are too similar to his own, so much so that he still has the possibility of seeing what their future holds.

In a short time.

He was filled with inner conflict and didn't know what to do...

···

the other side.

During these seven days, Yuan's mother would run out of the academy every day to visit Yuan Tao. Seeing that he was eating and drinking well and playing happily, she was furious.

Having joined the Quanxing Sect, Yuan's mother was not a virtuous person. Before she got together with Yuan Jingui, she made a living by trafficking other people's children, either selling them on the street or directly selling them to evil forces such as the Medicine Immortal Society, which were even worse than the Quanxing Sect, in exchange for money.

Since the birth of his son, the family has had an extra set of chopsticks and bowls, but the trafficking business has only grown stronger. They have even started targeting women in towns, luring them to the mountains to be sexually assaulted by rough men.

I just never expected—

This good-for-nothing child hasn't seen his mother for seven days, yet he doesn't miss her at all, nor does he shed a single tear. On the contrary, he eats well and plays happily.

What an unfilial brat!