The Great Wei Music Bureau

Chapter 379: The Art of Luck

Last time, we talked about how Li Yi finally settled the matter with Jing Xin's biological mother. Now it's time to talk business with the Jing family. How will the story develop? Let's read on.

There is nothing much to say about the feast, it was just a business show between scholars and businessmen. Let's skip this and get to the point. After the meal, Li Yi and the leader of the Jing family came to the main hall. Li Yi specially called all the younger Confucian scholars of the Jing family over, saying that he wanted to fulfill his promise and send the second betrothal gift, the art of luck.

It is said that Li Yi's art of luck was learned from the texture of the imperial seal, honed during his dual cultivation with Yuan Ziyi, further studied under the Yue clan in Shaya, and perfected when he climbed the celestial body built by the first sage Cangjie using the luck of the human race. Now, his understanding of luck can be said to be the best in the world.

Li Yi glanced at everyone in the Jing family, exchanged glances with Jing Zhi, and began to explain. Since the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the human race has fought against the demon race, and the human race has united as one just to survive, and luck was born from this.

The so-called destiny of the human race is actually the will of the people, and it is the concentrated embodiment of the spiritual power of millions of people. If you want to carry or control destiny, you must first have a good body, and be able to carry the destiny of the human race, otherwise you will suffer backlash.

The seventh level of self-cultivation and the eighth level of qi cultivation in Confucianism and Taoism are the key periods for practicing the art of qi, and this stage of self-cultivation and qi cultivation has become the longest path of practice. The vast majority of Confucian and Taoist practitioners have not been able to break through to the sixth level because their bodies cannot bear the qi.

Li Yi saw a trace of disappointment flash across the faces of some of the younger generations of the Jing family, and said with a smile: "Even if you cannot practice the art of destiny, don't be discouraged. Even if you break through to the sixth-grade gentleman realm, you may not be able to practice this way, because the hard conditions of the body are only the first hurdle in practicing the art of destiny."

Then, Li Yi began to talk about how to judge whether a person is suitable for practicing the art of destiny. There are two methods of identification, one is the identification method of the imperial family, and the other is the identification method of ordinary people.

Let’s start with the story of emperors. The Chinese people, whether they are a nomadic or agricultural people, have always regarded themselves as the descendants of Yan and Huang. Why?

In fact, there are two main reasons. The first is the legitimacy of the regime. From Huangdi to Yao, people of Huangdi's lineage have always held power. But when it came to Shun, things changed. Shun was a Dongyi man. According to his bloodline, he was not a descendant of Yan and Huang. There were constant natural disasters during that period, which made it seem that this was not the case.

Now we all understand what the so-called abdication is. Although the change of royal power is bound to involve bloody conflicts, for the lower-class people, they cannot see the struggles within the royal family, so the people lived more stable lives during the reign of the descendants of Yan and Huang.

During the reign of Emperor Shun, people lived in great difficulty. When Emperor Huangdi's descendant Yu regained power, people lived a stable life again. As the founder of the Xia Dynasty, Yu was also deeply loved by the people, which was the origin of the legitimacy of the regime.

The people at the bottom felt that as long as the Yellow Emperor's descendants were the boss, they could live a peaceful life, would not be punished by God, and would not have so many natural disasters. Therefore, whether it was Xia, Shang, Zhou or Qin, those who stood at the highest point were all descendants of the Yellow Emperor. This is the origin of legitimacy.

The second reason is that for a long time, Chinese civilization has been continuing the thoughts and technologies of Emperors Yan and Huang. The most important thing is that kings of all dynasties have been enjoying the legacy of Emperor Huang, and this legacy is the key to their ability to sit firmly on the throne, and this legacy is dragon energy!

Huangdi is the king of earth virtue, and this earth virtue is very important. Compared with heaven and earth, Huangdi attaches more importance to the latter. Going up a level, Huangdi is the emperor recognized by Niangniang Tai'an. This is also one of the reasons why he respects earth but not heaven. Otherwise, why would he go crazy and build the Tower of Babel?

After the Heavenly Envoy rode the dragon to heaven, what did Empress Tai'an do? She used the powerful body of the golden dragon and the luck of the human race in her body to refine the dragon energy, which was the last and most important legacy of the Yellow Emperor.

Not every monarch can possess dragon energy. As mentioned before, only the emperors who have a profound influence on future generations can have dragon energy. Just look at Yuan Ziyi to know how magical and powerful dragon energy is.

Yuan Ziyi had only one strand of dragon energy in her body. Not to mention her special abilities, just by using this strand of dragon energy to practice dual cultivation, she was able to forcibly open up her own and Li Yi's meridians, expand their sea of ​​​​qi, and allow the two of them to possess the meridians and sea of ​​​​qi of extraordinary warriors.

It was because of this that Li Yi could withstand Dayi's Qi base and maintain his own personality after the fusion of souls. Then such a domineering dragon Qi is naturally not something that ordinary people can accept.

Even the descendants of Huangdi may not be able to withstand the baptism of dragon energy. Most of the short-lived and last emperors had tragic endings because their bloodlines could not withstand the dragon energy. For example, King Wu of Qin, Yingdang, was born with supernatural power, but he died lifting a tripod. Was it because he could not lift the tripod?

No, at that time the dragon energy in the world was broken into more than a dozen parts and scattered in the bodies of kings of various countries. There was also a part of dragon energy in his body. This dragon energy itself was the product of the combination of the destiny of the human race and the soul of the yellow dragon, and the tripod carried the destiny of the human race.

When Yingdang lifted the tripod, the dragon energy in his body sensed the same luck as his own and tried to absorb it. However, the amount of dragon energy exceeded the amount that Yingdang could bear, and his blood vessels eventually burst, his eyes bled, and he died on the spot.

Therefore, when the kings of later generations chose their heirs, they had to go through a test first to test whether the child had the ability to inherit the dragon spirit. Only the prince who passed the test was qualified to inherit the throne, and the test was different for different royal families.

The royal family of Chu had a wizard who served them specifically, and he was the Great Wizard of Jiuli. Although he did not have the ability to force the dragon energy to attach to any king, he did have a means of identifying whether the royal children could carry the dragon energy, and that was the tripod sacrifice.

The Ding Sacrifice is a major ceremony that requires the use of the Qi Ding and the blood of the royal family. It must be held by the king after fasting, bathing, offering sacrifices, and praying, and only the main members of the royal family can participate.

Take the tripod sacrifice held by the King of Chu for the Crown Prince Xiong Zhu as an example. Apart from the newly born Xiong Zhu, there were only four people who were qualified to participate: First was the King of Chu, who needless to say was naturally the most important person.

The second one is Da Zongbo, the royal relative who is in charge of royal clan affairs and Taimiao sacrifices, named Wang Bei Gong Xiong Zhui.

The third one is the high priest of the royal family. The high priest who presided over the tripod sacrifice to Xiong Zhu was Tu Jie. After Tu Jie's death, Tu Xiu became the high priest of the Chu royal family. The two were uncle and nephew.

The last one is the prince’s biological mother, Xiong Zhu’s mother.

I will briefly describe the process. The high priest communicated with the heavens through singing and dancing as sacrifices, and then chanted an incantation to report that today was a cauldron sacrifice. Next, the King of Chu personally pricked the child's finger with a needle, and the Grand Master of the Clan held the child and dripped blood into the Cauldron of Fortune. Then four people gathered around the Cauldron of Fortune and watched.

The moment the blood of the bear pillar dripped into the Qiyun Cauldron, it started to boil, and it disappeared before it could even flow to the bottom of the cauldron. What does this mean?

The luck of the human race is vying to merge into his blood, which means that he has very pure blood and can inherit the dragon energy perfectly without any pressure.

On the contrary, if there is no reaction when the blood is dropped into the Qiyun Cauldron, it means that the child is finished. He is not favored by Qiyun at all and cannot bear the dragon energy at all. If the throne is passed to him, he will surely die early.

This is the tripod sacrifice of the Chu State, and it is also the reason why the Chu State insisted on casting nine tripods. The method used by the Southern Liang Dynasty to judge whether the prince has the ability to carry the dragon spirit is the Confucian and Taoist techniques, and the chess judgment of the Zhu Xi school is the most convenient.

After all, Zhu Zi is in the extraordinary realm and carries the luck of the human race. His method of deciding the game of chess is to inject the luck into the black and white pieces, and then put the pieces in the hands of the prince. If the child does not cry or make a fuss, and can even play with the two pieces, then he has passed.

On the contrary, if the baby takes the chess piece and throws it away as if it were hot, or cries and shouts to show extreme dissatisfaction, then it means that it cannot bear the fate of the human race.

Although Master Zhu's chess method is very convenient and does not require fasting or bathing, it is easy to make mistakes. After all, children are taught by someone. If someone deliberately teaches the child to cheat, pretend that nothing happened, or even play with the chess pieces, outsiders will not be able to see it.

As for what method the Northern Wei used, we will leave it to the end because it is related to the ending of the book. I will just briefly mention it here. Because the Xianbei people did not have their own wizards or Master Zhu, Tuoba Tao's method of selecting a crown prince was developed by Empress Dowager Xiao by drawing on the Confucian and Taoist methods of the Southern Liang Dynasty.

By the way, the dragon energy on Yuan Ziyi's body was also extracted from Tuoba Tao in a similar way. As for the specific details, we will talk about it when we get the final volume.

After talking about how the royal family judges whether their children can inherit the dragon spirit and feel the luck, it is time to talk about how ordinary families can do it. Li Yi has been talking for so long that his mouth is dry. He reaches out to pick up the teacup, and the shadow of the dragon of luck appears around him. He takes the opportunity to drink tea to scan the people in the room and secretly observe their reactions.

The result was disappointing and unexpected. Even the two great scholars Jingzhi and Jingkui did not see the shadow of the dragon of luck, but Jingxuan and a little boy standing in the corner looked at Li Yi in amazement.

The little boy pointed at Li Yi and shouted, "Dragon! There's a dragon beside him!"

Jing Zhi shouted, "How dare you! Wei Ru is preaching, Jing Yuan, what are you yelling about! If you can't stand it anymore, get out!"

Jingxuan was about to speak for his brother when Li Yi whispered to him, "Don't say anything. Let the kid go. Maybe this can save his life." Jingxuan understood what Li Yi meant instantly and stopped talking. He continued to listen to Li Yi talk about the art of destiny as if nothing had happened.

In fact, it was meaningless for Li Yi to tell others about it. Even if they understood, they couldn't learn it. It was like playing the lute to a cow. So Li Yi's next talk was a bit perfunctory. He only talked about a great scholar who threatened the monarch of another country with the destiny of the human race, that is, the story of Lin Xiangru and King Zhaoxiang of Qin.

Since everyone was familiar with this great scholar, Li Yi did not say much about it. He only said that on the surface, it was Lin Xiangru who did this and that, but in fact, he used the luck of the human race to suppress the dragon energy in the King of Qin's body. This was the case with the Return of the Jade to Zhao and the Meeting at Mianchi.

After a brief explanation, Li Yi said that he would stop here today and asked the others to go back first, leaving only the two leaders of the Jing family and Jing Xuan. Jing Zhi and Jing Kui could clearly see that Li Yi was perfunctory, but they didn't know what to say, so they let everyone else go.

After the idlers left, Li Yi said solemnly: "Father-in-law, the child just now is called Jingyuan, right? Quickly order someone to bring him back secretly. Only he and Brother Xuan in the Jing family are suitable for practicing this art of destiny."

Jing Zhi was surprised and said: "Wei Le, are you talking about Jing Yuan just now..."

Li Yi nodded, and Jing Kui immediately went to find the child himself. Li Yi took advantage of the gap to explain the Miaojiang Rebellion to Jing Zhi and asked the Jing family to fully cooperate. The latter naturally understood and readily agreed.

Jing Xuan said sternly, "Father, Jing Yuan is young and cannot protect himself. If others knew that he was practicing the art of destiny with his brother-in-law, they might envy him."

We are all thousand-year-old foxes, so who doesn't understand the weight of this sentence? Jing Zhi nodded and said, "I know. I'll think of a way to adopt him to your uncle's side in the future. Under the guise of practicing stargazing, he can secretly practice the art of destiny. This way, he can be kept safe. Xuan'er, you've been standing for so long, you should sit down too."

When Jingyuan arrived, Li Yi began to teach Jingzhi and Jingkui how to practice the art of luck. Jingyuan was just an eight-year-old child who had just begun to awaken, so it was not easy to teach him the advanced art of luck.

Fortunately, Li Yi thought of another way to speed up his Confucianism and Taoism practice, and to train his mental and spiritual strength, which was wood carving. Li Yi first taught them the soul-forging technique, and asked them to find a way to condense their souls into hammers and carving knives. This step alone was a hurdle.

Li Yi took out another piece of golden nanmu wood from the sack, divided it into several pieces and gave them to Jingxuan and Jingyuan, telling them to carve it with a chisel before condensing the soul hammer. This is a practice method to train mental strength. After they are able to master the soul-forging technique, they can use their souls to condense into chisels for further carving.