Chapter 358: Chapter 357: The Daoist of West Mountain
"First bow to Heaven and Earth! Second bow to the parents! The couple bows to each other!"
Qin Province, West Capital, a certain hotel.
A wedding was underway. The attire was in the traditional style of Celestial Xia, and the ceremony’s rhythm blended both foreign and domestic elements. It followed tradition without being overly complex—a sort of modern take on a classic Chinese wedding.
It was much like the so-called "new Chinese style" Hanfu popular today; you could clearly tell the clothing was in the traditional style of Celestial Xia, but it was by no means a carbon copy of the past. Instead, it incorporated a modern aesthetic.
This wasn’t a sign of disrespect for tradition. Rather, it was an innovation that evolved with the times while still paying homage to it.
"But... isn’t this taking innovation a bit too far?"
Someone glanced to the side of the wedding hall and was surprised to see a Daoist clad in a Magical Robe. He held a Duster in one hand and a Jade Gui in the other, muttering incantations and occasionally waving the Duster.
"Are they using a Daoist like a Priest?" one person remarked, finding it comical. "This is a bit much!"
"Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t know what you’re talking about," another person advised. "That’s the groom’s cousin, a legitimate Daoist from the Eight Immortals Palace. He performed blessing rituals when the groom set out and when he went to pick up the bride. Not just anyone gets that kind of treatment."
"Isn’t that just feudal superstition? Ancient weddings didn’t have this part in the ceremony, did they?"
"That just shows how little you know. It was rare in ancient times because common people didn’t have the right to it. Have you ever seen a royal wedding without religious figures participating in the blessings?"
"Uh, now that you mention it, I guess they did," the person said, shocked. "So what, they’re throwing themselves a royal wedding?"
"Exactly!" the other person chuckled. "What era are we in now? Why can’t common folk have a royal wedding?"
While some people whispered among themselves below, the bride and groom on the stage looked toward Yunyang with expressions of solemn respect and gratitude.
Yunyang hadn’t bothered with hiding his identity or playing the wolf in sheep’s clothing. His family and his cousin’s had always been on good terms, helping each other out for years. Besides, his own father had asked him to.
So, Yunyang had started by using his Taoist True Qi to regulate the bodies of the bride and groom. The tangible sensation instantly made them revere Yunyang as if he were a celestial being.
Everything that followed was a matter of course. They respectfully placed the pair of Purple Sandalwood persimmons—a gift from Yunyang symbolizing good things coming in pairs—in the most central location of their new home. They also gave Yunyang the best seat at the wedding venue.
Yunyang thought about it. ’Since I’m already here, and it’s rare for me to attend a wedding, I might as well add all the proper ceremonies.’ So he formally performed blessing Rituals during the groom’s departure, the fetching of the bride, and the wedding ceremony itself, just to add a bit of ceremonial flair.
Then, at the entrance of the hall, he saw Gu Zhao, who was struggling to hold back a laugh.
Yunyang, "..."
"Putting on a shamanic dance?" Gu Zhao transmitted his voice with a chuckle.
"What shamanic dance! I’m giving the newlyweds my blessing!" Yunyang retorted stubbornly. Then, he actually cast a spell, sending out streams of Magical Power like a sweet rain that merged into the bodies of the couple on stage.
...
"Are you here to pick me up?" Yunyang asked.
The wedding was now over. Yunyang had brought Gu Zhao to the Liu Family’s restaurant on Guangji Street, where they each ordered a bowl of Yangrou Paomo. They chatted as they broke the flatbread into pieces.
"Yup," Gu Zhao said with a nod.
"Yeah, right!" Yunyang rolled his eyes at Gu Zhao. "It’s not like I haven’t been back before. When have you ever come to pick me up?"
"Then why did you ask?" Gu Zhao rolled his eyes back at him.
"So what are you here for?" Yunyang asked. "Didn’t you just send those old Daoists from Feiyun Mountain back?"
"There are still two Thunder Seeds left," Gu Zhao said.
Yunyang understood. "The Eight Immortals Palace has no more True Dao masters, but the Chongyang Palace, Louguan Platform, and Golden Immortal Temple all do."
Qin Province was a major center for Daoism. Taoist Temples of all sizes were scattered across the province. Although some were remote and had few members, it didn’t mean they lacked true masters.
On the contrary, the number of Daoists in Qin Province who had cultivated True Qi was actually among the highest in the country. Back when the South Mountain Hermits became a viral sensation, it was because there really were masters in the mountains. They just scattered once the cameras started showing up.
But that wasn’t Gu Zhao’s objective. "We’re not going to those places first."
"Then where are we going?" Yunyang asked, confused.
"West Mountain," Gu Zhao said calmly.
Yunyang smiled. "So you’re planning to collect the legacies of all Quanzhen Seven Elders!"
The Quanzhen Seven Elders: Ma Yu, Qiu Chuji, Tan Chuduan, Wang Chuyi, Hao Datong, Liu Chuxuan, and Sun Bu’Er.
Among them, the most widespread was naturally the Dragon Gate Sect of Chang Chun Master, Qiu Chuji. It was practically the largest lineage in the Celestial Xia Taoist Sect today.
Additionally, Liu Chuxuan’s Sui Mountain Sect, Wang Chuyi’s Yu Mountain Sect, and Sun Bu’Er’s Pure Sect all had their legacies on Lao Mountain. Gu Zhao had already taken successors from each of them to the Otherworld.
The remaining ones were Ma Yu’s Yuxian Sect and Tan Churui’s Namo Sect, whose main heritages were in Yu Province, a place Gu Zhao had yet to visit.
The last one was Hao Datong’s Huashan Sect.
This branch was incredibly famous. It not only featured prominently in the martial arts novels written by Elder Jin, but it was also quite strong within real-life Daoism.
"I heard that Taoist Xi Ning and Taoist Xian Yuan, the ones who discovered the Mao Girl Cave, have taken up residence up there?" Gu Zhao asked.
A few days ago, two Daoists had followed the shallow footholds left by their predecessors on a cliff face and discovered a statue hidden in a perilous, sheer-walled area. It was a shrine to the Mao Girl, a figure from a thousand-year-old legend.
"Nope, they came back down," Yunyang replied. He had also heard about this and had specifically asked around back at the Eight Immortals Palace. "They originally wanted to stay up there, but too many thrill-seeking hikers started showing up to ’check in’."
Gu Zhao raised an eyebrow. "I thought the scenic area authorities closed off the route and forbid people from going?"
Yunyang spread his hands. "That only stops the obedient hikers. There are plenty of disobedient ones."
"Alright." Gu Zhao shook his head, crumbling the last small piece of flatbread. He then asked Yunyang, "What’s the next step?"
Yunyang waved to the waiter. "The bread’s ready! Douse it in soup!"
...
「West Mountain, Mao Girl Peak.」
Two old Daoists, two middle-aged Daoists, and one young Daoist stood on a smaller mountain peak next to Mao Girl Peak, watching a group of people climbing the sheer cliff face in the distance.
The climbing team consisted of five people, both men and women. They weren’t far apart, using their hands and feet to cling to the mountain wall as they scaled an unmanned section on the side of Mao Girl Peak. A camera drone set to auto-follow hovered nearby.
"What they’re doing is very dangerous!" a square-faced, middle-aged Daoist said with a frown.
The young Daoist curled his lip. "If one of them falls, the rest will learn their lesson."
One of the old Daoists shook his head and looked at the other old Daoist beside him. "Hasn’t the path been blocked off yet? If something really happens, our good intentions will have led to a disaster."
The second old Daoist stroked his beard. "They said it would be done in the next day or two."
The last one, a middle-aged Daoist with a goatee, said nothing. He just watched the hikers crawling along the distant cliff, then glanced at the sky, his expression growing worried. "The wind is picking up."
"Hmm?" Everyone turned to look.
In the next moment, the mountain wind suddenly intensified, seeming to jump several levels in strength. It buffeted the climbers, causing them to sway, and they all scrambled to press themselves tightly against the cliff face.
"AH!"
A cry of alarm rang out. A woman’s body was suddenly whipped by the wind. Losing her stability, she plunged headfirst off the cliff.
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