Rebirth of the Genius Charlatan

Chapter 13 – First Lesson

“The five art of metaphysics: Mountain, Medicine, Life, Divination, Appearance.”

In the mansion on the mountain, Tang ZongBo sat in his wheelchair, stroking his beard and speaking with a smile. Xia Shao sat under a tree and listened carefully as today was her first lesson.

“The so-called medicine means Chinese medicine. It includes prescriptions, acupuncture, spiritual healing, and so on. In our lineage, medicine is also something we need to learn. We need to be proficient in herbs, meridians, and acupuncture points. All these you will understand it better at a later stage when ShiFu gets you some herbs to take a medicinal bath.”

Xia Shao nodded.

Tang ZongBo continued: “The so-called life means the fate. Nowadays, everyone talks about science so ShiFu will explain it to you from a scientific point of view. Fate means a method of judging a person’s life by the magnetic field of time and space and is also related to statistics. It includes astrology and the sexagenary cycle. Our ancestor of the Xuan Sect, Li ChunFeng, was a famous astronomer.”

“Hmm.” Xia Shao nodded again.

“Divination, as it is called, has the longest history in metaphysics. Both the Eastern and Western societies had a history of divination. The ancient divination technique in Western society was the Tarot, which emerged in the middle ages. When I was young, I’ve competed with a Western divination master once, and I’ve beat him by a mile.”

When Tang ZongBo said this, there was inevitably a look of pride in his eyes, but soon he sighed: “It’s just that nowadays these ancient arts have fallen and lost in terms of their heritage for both the Eastern and Western societies. There are very few heirs but there are indeed some grandmasters still roaming around. In the future, when you’ve engaged in this line of work, you will inevitably encounter these people, and you will know when the time comes.”

Tang ZongBo spoke again: “In our Eastern history, most of the military scholars of the dynasties were proficient in these arts, such as Zhuge Liang, Liu BoWen, and Zeng GuoFan. The art of divination evolved from the ancient Zhou Yi, and our sect, apart from Feng Shui, we are the best at divination. <<LiuRen Yin Yang Jing>> is the work of our ancestors. It is the oldest form of divination using the five elements of yin and yang to foretell fortune. It is the first and most difficult of the three styles, together with the QiMen DunJia and the TaiYi ShenShu1. However, it being the most difficult to be divine was also the most accurate because of its extremely in-depth statistical science of information and the formulas are complex and varied. Nowadays, apart from our Xuan Sect, there are very few people in the Jianghu who are proficient in the LiuRen divination.”

Xia Shao listened carefully and nodded her head. Not learning divination was fine for her in her opinion. Since she had the Divine Eyes and the accuracy of her prophecies, those divination techniques could not be compared.

“The so-called appearances are divided into human and earthly appearances. There are palmistry, face reading, body reading, bone reading, and mole reading which all belong to human appearances. The true grand mastery of the Xuan Sect was the earthly appearances which was the geomancy and it is the art of Feng Shui! Whether it is the Feng Shui for the living environment or Feng Shui for the burial, they are all grand mastery for us. Therefore, to create a fortune for a man or to kill and destroy them, it’s all in the mind.”

When she saw Tang ZongBo’s expression turn solemnly, Xia Shao held her chin and asked: “Is it really that powerful? Has ShiFu ever killed someone with the Feng Shui techniques?”

Tang ZongBo was stunned but his expression had already given Xia Shao the answer. In fact, she was just curious about why Tang ZongBo was recuperating in the village and what kind of past he had gone through. However, she suppressed the thought of using her Divine Eyes. After all, she had already worshipped the old man as her ShiFu, and as a mark of respect for him, she still hoped that he would tell her his past by himself one day.

“Alas, it is still too early to let you know about the past. You only need to remember how powerful the Feng Shui killing formations and the Qi Men techniques are. In Jianghu, very few people dare to offend the true Feng Shui master. However, in our line of work, we are concerned with karma and do not want to commit any sins. Yet, in this world, not everything will be paid for being good or evil as even the ghosts and gods are afraid to approach the most truly evil people. To eliminate evil is to spread the good, and you will understand it later when you are standing at a certain height…..”

Tang ZongBo sighed and waved his hand: “I am not going to chat more about this with you. Having to say all those, do you know which of the five arts of metaphysics is the most difficult?”

Xia Shao thought for a moment: “Shifu hasn’t explained ‘mountain’ yet, so what does the mountain mean? Why are the mountains the hardest of all?”

Tang ZongBo laughed: “That’s right! The hardest part is the mountain! Mountain means the secret art of cultivating the mind and exercising the body and it is also the toughest realm to attain. To put it bluntly, it is the kung fu of mortals practising and cultivating immortality. Since ancient times, those who cultivate the Immortal Dao2 called themselves the Mountain Clan and that is what they mean. Our Xuan Sect has inherited the technique of exhaling and nourishing Qi, which some people refer it as QiGong, but it is not comprehensive. In short, only when one really learns to exhale and nourish Qi, can one communicate the vital energy of heaven and earth thus creating a real Feng Shui formation. That is what makes one an authentic Feng Shui master and no way are those charlatans in the Jianghu are comparable.”

At first, Xia Shao wanted to laugh when she heard the word ‘cultivating immortality’ but the more she listened to the explanation, the more her urge to laugh was subsidised. She had heard of QiGong, and she could also see the Qi of heaven and earth with her Divine Eyes. This meant that the Qi exhalation and cultivation of immortality and the practice of the Immortal Dao as mentioned by ShiFu, definitely existed while such people were just extremely rare nowadays.

Xia Shao had a feeling of being in a different world. In her previous life, she was busy searching for a job after she had graduated from the university. She worked hard for seven years in a company and became a busy member of the first-tier city, when would she ever imagine that there was such a group of people in the world?

Suddenly she realized that it seemed her previous life had long been moved far away from her but she had obviously been reborn for just over half a month only.

Xia Shao glanced up at the sky through the spare branches overhead, and she knew that in this life, her life path would inevitably be one of a great change……

After regaining back her sense, Xia Shao couldn’t help but took a good look at Tang ZongBo. Although the old man’s hair was white, his face was rosy and he seems like he was still in his prime. His face had no wrinkles at all and his spirit was still bright and cheerful. It seems that the Taoist method of nourishing Qi benefited life and prolonged it, and the result really did look good.

“Oh well, alright enough. I’ve told you so much in one go, and I don’t know if you could remember it. There’s no hurry, ShiFu will first teach you the method of exhaling and nourishing Qi.”

Xia Shao nodded her head and began to learn carefully.

After that day, Xia Shao went to the mountains every day. Although Xia GuoXi didn’t like it, he could not oppose her because of Professor Zhou previous lecture. Anyway, when his granddaughter was at home, he was busy watching TV and listening to the radio, so he didn’t have much to chat with her. Thus, he just turned a blind eye and let her be.

It was just Jiang ShuHui who cares for her granddaughter and always nagged at her to be careful not to fall when she went up and down the mountain. However, in her mind, she also wondered what attracted her little granddaughter to wake up early every day and climb the mountain.

The two elderly naturally didn’t know that ever since Xia Shao had gone to the mountain to practice martial arts and cultivate her Qi, the transformation was happening in her body every moment…..

In the meantime, the school transfer was done, the winter break was rushed through and Xia Shao started schooling.

(T/N:
太乙神数 TaiYi ShenShu1 = TaiYi divine number
仙道 Immortal Dao2 = The ‘way’ of immortal

Alright finally posted. Sorry for the delay again as those terms… XD. Hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you for reading.)