nownovels Chapter 231 Tai Chi Sealing Disc
Chapter 231 Tai Chi Sealing Disc
Chapter 231 Tai Chi Sealing Disc (4400)
After hearing Lu Yuan's warning, which was practically tantamount to "revealing their coffins," Lin Zhaoxuan's face drained of color inch by inch.
He didn't speak immediately, but kept his head down, his fingers tracing the crack on the edge of the Thunder Token over and over again, as if weighing the weight of the matter in his mind.
The fire crackled, and the morning breeze rustled through the withered branches of the old willow tree, its shadow swaying gently on the ground like a crouching, motionless beast watching them from the shadows.
Zhou Heng was the first to lose his temper, lowering his voice to say, "Senior Brother—Fellow Daoist Lu has already put it this way, why don't we retreat first?"
"This place is ridiculously evil. It wouldn't be cowardly for us to leave if our cultivation isn't strong enough."
He spoke very softly, clearly showing that he genuinely cared about Lin Zhaoxuan.
Song Qinghe frowned, hesitated for a moment, and then whispered, "Senior brother, Fellow Daoist Lu is right."
"Last night we pushed the Bloodfire Pill and Thunder Token to their limits. If we go any further in, no one dares to say they can hold out."
"It's a miracle we got out alive."
Lin Zhaoxuan, however, still did not look up.
He was silent for a long time.
Just when Xu Erxiao thought he was about to back down, Lin Zhaoxuan suddenly looked up.
In that instant, the weariness and weakness in his eyes were still there, but deeper within, an extremely resolute light slowly shone.
"We can't leave."
The three words, spoken softly, landed like nails on the ground.
Zhou Heng was taken aback: "Senior brother?"
Lin Zhaoxuan slowly sat up straighter, his back still feeling a little weak, but he managed to keep it perfectly upright.
He looked at Lu Yuan with unwavering gaze and said, word by word, "Fellow Daoist Lu, you are right. This place is very strange, more strange than we originally thought."
"But it is precisely because it is evil that we cannot leave."
He paused, as if suppressing the surging blood in his chest, or perhaps the almost burning emotion within him.
"The phrase my master most often said to us was 'one'."
Lin Zhaoxuan's voice slowly rose, the firelight reflecting off his profile, revealing the stubbornness and sharpness unique to young people.
"Those who follow the Way do not hold a sword in their hands, but a breath of life and a lamp."
"Where there is light, there is light; where there is spirit, there is spirit."
"If evil is not eradicated, how can one speak of the Way?"
He raised his hand, gripped the Thunder Token tightly, and his voice grew increasingly resounding.
"Our master taught us to learn thunder magic, not so that we would avoid anything powerful, nor so that we would only preach and expound the Dharma in safe places."
"He taught us that if a person who cultivates the Tao only cares about their own safety, then what they cultivate is not the Tao, but merely a life of mere survival!"
"Now that we know evil spirits lurk in this Savage Gully, that people here offer the breath of living beings, the breath of corpses, and incense to that unknown thing, and that it is still harming people down there!"
"Then you can't leave!"
"We can choose not to be reckless, we can choose not to lose our lives, but we cannot pretend we didn't see it!"
His words grew increasingly forceful, eventually taking on a tone of passionate fervor.
"Taoism speaks of a righteous spirit, of the common people, of justice being served where injustice is right, and of cleansing where uncleanliness is found."
""
"If we retreat today out of fear of death, then when this thing comes out again, it won't just be a few of us who will be harmed, but countless lives will be lost throughout this entire area beyond the Great Wall, in and around these valleys!"
"If our master were still here, he would definitely tell us to keep moving forward!"
After he finished speaking, there was a moment of silence around the fire.
Zhou Heng's eyes reddened first. He gritted his teeth and slammed his fist into his knee.
"OK!"
"My senior brother is going, I'll go with him!"
"If I were really afraid of dying, I wouldn't have come out with you guys in the first place!"
He spoke roughly, but he was absolutely clear.
Song Qinghe was stunned for a moment, then lowered her head and pursed her lips, as if suppressing her emotions.
But after only a couple of breaths, she raised her head and said softly but firmly, "I'll go too."
"Senior brother is right. What Master taught us is that we must take action when we see evil and never back down when we face difficulties."
"My Taoist skills are not as good as yours, but at least I can still put up talismans, guard the altar, and suppress evil spirits."
"As long as I can still stand, I won't leave."
Lin Zhaoxuan looked at the two of them, his gaze visibly softening slightly, but he quickly turned back to Lu Yuan.
"Fellow Daoist Lu."
"We know we are not very skilled, but we are not here to cause you trouble; we are here to exorcise evil."
He paused, his tone becoming increasingly deliberate and firm, each word carrying a weight: "I, Lin Zhaoxuan, am making my point clear today."
"If there is an even greater evil in this ditch, I will risk my life to see what it is."
"If I really do come out alive, I will take full responsibility for this karma."
"If I die here, it's the path I chose myself. I won't blame heaven or anyone else."
The firelight illuminated his pale face, revealing a resolute determination that was almost burning within him.
Lu Yuan looked at him, and the faint coldness in his eyes finally began to dissipate.
He knew that once this kind of person made a decision, not even ten horses could pull him back.
Knowing this, Lu Yuan still didn't immediately give a straight answer.
He raised his chin and glanced at the three of them.
Lu Yuan's gaze lingered on the faces of Lin Zhaoxuan and the other two for a moment before finally settling on the red-hot piece of charcoal in the fire.
"I have heard your arrogance."
His voice was low and even calm when he spoke, but there was no room for ambiguity in his words.
"But ambition is ambition, and fate is fate."
"This kind of thing can't be accomplished by just saying a few impassioned words now."
Lin Zhaoxuan's expression tightened.
Lu Yuan looked up at him, his tone still steady, but colder and harder than before: "It's not that I don't believe you want to exorcise evil, it's that I don't believe in your current physical condition."
"With your limited skills, if you really keep up, won't you just hold us back?"
"You have already seen that tree and that ghostly figure."
"That's just what's on the surface."
"Nobody knows what will happen next."
"If you really come with me and something happens, I will take care of you. If I don't, I'll send you to your deaths."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over Xu Erxiao and Wang Chengan.
"It's the same if I take both of them with me."
"By agreeing to your request, I'm essentially agreeing to risk all five of my lives."
"I won't take on this kind of responsibility."
This was said bluntly, leaving almost no room for negotiation.
Zhou Heng became anxious upon hearing this.
"Fellow Daoist Lu, aren't you going too far with your words?"
"We're not made of paper; if a real fight breaks out, things might not go well."
"Maybe what?"
Lu Yuan interrupted him directly.
"Not necessarily dead?"
"Or will it not necessarily cause trouble?"
Zhou Heng was speechless for a moment, his face turning bright red.
Song Qinghe frowned and said softly, "Fellow Daoist Lu, we know that our cultivation is inferior to yours, but you can't just assume that we are doomed to fail because of our low cultivation level."
Lu Yuan glanced at her.
"I'm not judging whether you can succeed or not."
"What I'm certain of is that you'll suffer if you go in with me."
"In Taoism, the emphasis is on knowing when to advance and retreat, and discerning what is important and what is not; it's not about rushing forward with just a surge of enthusiasm."
Lu Yuan's voice wasn't loud, but it was like a cold piece of iron, leaving people speechless for a moment.
Lin Zhaoxuan pursed his lips, as if he wanted to argue further, but in the end he just clenched the Thunder Token and said in a deep voice, "Fellow Daoist Lu, we will not hold you back."
"I can defend the outer perimeter without the Thunder Order. Zhou Heng can wield a sword, and Qing He can suppress the talisman. The three of us don't necessarily have to stand back and watch."
"You want me to leave? I won't."
"This isn't about showing off; it's about cause and effect."
"My master taught us to cultivate the Tao, and he never taught us to back down in the face of difficulties."
"If I retreat today, how can I maintain my resolve to follow the path of evil spirits in the future?"
As he finished speaking, his tone rose again, carrying that stubbornness that was forced out.
Lu Yuan simply looked at him without replying immediately.
After a moment, he bent down, picked up a pinch of ash from the fire, rubbed it gently, and said, "I only half believe you when you say you won't hold us back."
"I don't believe in my other half."
"It's not a question of whether you want to delay or not, it's a question of whether you have the ability to not delay."
Lin Zhaoxuan's face stiffened.
The air suddenly tightened.
Just then, Song Qinghe suddenly raised her head, as if she had finally made up her mind, and reached into her bosom.
She moved very slowly, as if that thing was extremely important and she dared not be the slightest bit rash.
"Since Fellow Daoist Lu is not at ease with us, let's take a look at this first."
She opened her hand, and there lay a small object in her palm.
The object was no bigger than the palm of my hand, dark and heavy, resembling both wood and bone, wrapped in a fine, aged red rope, with several shiny copper coins pressed on the knot.
The most eye-catching feature is a black and white circular jade piece embedded in the center, with a faintly engraved circle of extremely fine seal script patterns.
When it was taken out, the firelight shone on it, and it faintly exuded a calm and restrained spiritual pressure.
Zhou Heng was stunned when he saw it.
"Junior sister, you took all of this out?"
Lin Zhaoxuan also looked up abruptly, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
Song Qinghe bit her lip and whispered, "It's come to this point, there's no point in hiding it anymore."
She turned to Lu Yuan and said seriously, "This is a magic artifact passed down from our sect to suppress evil spirits, called the Taiji Sealing Plate."
"It was originally kept inside the mountain gate and was not allowed to be taken out easily."
"Before my master passed away, he said that if one day a truly ominous situation were to occur, this chart could be temporarily used to suppress yin and stabilize qi."
Protect the altar.
She took a deep breath, and as if afraid that Lu Yuan wouldn't believe her, she slightly turned the jade plate over, revealing a line of very faint ancient characters on the back.
"Once Yin and Yang are separated, evil spirits cannot approach."
"This thing isn't for showing off, but if it's just for going down to explore and protecting the three of us's vital energy, it should be enough."
The firelight illuminated the Tai Chi sealing disc, its black and white colors subtly shifting in the light, as if a vital energy was slowly flowing within it.
Lu Yuan finally raised his eyes and his gaze fell on the magical artifact.
Lu Yuan didn't answer immediately.
He first looked at the "Tai Chi Sealing Plate" in Song Qinghe's palm.
He glanced up and then at her knuckles, the base of her thumb, and the few copper coins that had been rubbed until they shone.
It's like looking at a piece of equipment, but also like looking at the path behind it.
Lu Yuan didn't reach out quickly; his fingertips first lightly touched the edge of the jade plate.
Upon that touch, his brow twitched almost imperceptibly.
There's something there.
Lu Yuan said in a low voice.
He took the ritual implement, placed it in his palm, and without turning it over, used the firelight to observe its overall energy.
This thing isn't big, but it's very heavy—not in terms of weight, but in the kind of heaviness that "holds things down."
The outer ring is made of yin wood, the wood color is not obvious, but the grain is very old, as if it has been left after generations of incense burning and weathering.
The red rope is not ordinary vermilion thread, but is made of five-colored silk that has been soaked in cinnabar for warding off evil. The knot is extremely tight, and a faint golden aura remains at the knot, neither dissipating nor floating, firmly attached to the object.
The most crucial piece is the black and white jade piece embedded in the center.
After glancing at it a few times, Lu Yuan already had a good idea of what was going on.
This is not a simple yin-yang jade ornament, nor is it a "house-protecting plate" used as a mere decoration.
The extremely fine seal script pattern on the jade piece follows the principle of "the innate Taiji divides Yin and Yang, and the acquired talisman locks the evil gate".
Although the lines are fine, not a single stroke is disordered. The energy emanates from the center of the plate and then converges back through the red string at the outer edge, forming a complete "cycle of mutual generation and restraint".
What does this tell us?
This shows that the person who crafted this ritual implement did not only know how to suppress evil in a superficial way, but truly understood the three levels of "absorbing evil, dividing evil, and closing evil" in Taoist ritual implements.
Traditional ritual implements rely on force to suppress evil, like pressing a large rock down on a well cover. If something in the well is violent, the well cover will explode.
But this Tai Chi sealing plate is different; it doesn't block directly, but rather "separates first and then locks."
By straightening out the Yin and Yang paths, and then introducing the evil energy into the Death Gate at the center of the plate, the Tai Chi rotation gradually grinds, dulls, and disperses the evil energy.
This kind of instrument is most vulnerable to misuse by laymen, but once it falls into the hands of someone who knows how to use it, it can suppress, protect, and stabilize the altar, and can even block a backlash of evil spirits for someone at a critical moment.
Lu Yuan slowly ran his fingertips over the ancient characters on the back of the plate again.
"Once Yin and Yang are separated, evil spirits cannot approach."
He silently recited a sentence in his mind, then nodded secretly.
nice one.
Moreover, it's not an empty shell relying on its ancestors' reputation; it truly possesses a "spirit."
It's no exaggeration to say that it was passed down from a master's lineage.
Judging from the spiritual pressure emanating from this artifact, it must have been nurtured by at least three generations of altar masters over many years for the breath in its center to be so stable.
Like a deep well, it neither explodes nor dries up, and it is specifically designed to subdue things that are filthy, corpse-like, or bound by earth.
If the old willow tree last night was a "living evil spirit," then this plate is specifically designed to counteract such a thing.
Even if they actually encounter that thing in the cave later, this magical artifact might not be able to kill it head-on, but at least it can protect the three of them from being distracted by the first breath of evil energy.
Lu Yuan turned the ritual implement over and gently snapped his knuckles together.
"Zheng".
The sound was not crisp, but rather muffled, yet with a very subtle echo, indicating that the energy within the plate had not been extinguished and was still spinning.
After reading it, Lu Yuan remained silent for a moment.
The firelight reflected in his eyes, as if it were also momentarily illuminated by the yin and yang energy in the dish.
Afterwards, Lu Yuan handed the magic artifact back to Song Qinghe, and then looked up at Lin Zhaoxuan and the other two.
This time, the rejection in Lu Yuan's eyes had faded considerably, replaced by a very practical assessment.
Lin Zhaoxuan, Zhou Heng, and Song Qinghe remained silent, simply staring at him, awaiting his decision.
Lu Yuan's gaze lingered on them for a moment, especially on Lin Zhaoxuan's face.
The young Taoist priest's face was still pale, and his shoulders and back were slightly tense due to his injuries, but his unyielding spirit was like a lamp that had not been blown out by the wind.
One's Daoist heart may not be fully developed, but one's bones are hard.
Lu Yuan sighed inwardly.
People with this kind of drive are often the most troublesome, but also the most rare.
After a long pause, he finally nodded.
"OK."
As soon as the word was uttered, the people around the fire were all startled.
Lu Yuan continued the conversation, his tone still calm, but he no longer refused.
"This magical artifact is qualified."
"It's not just for show; it's something that truly commands attention."
"With it here, at least the three of you won't be overwhelmed by the Yin energy as soon as you go up."
He paused, then looked at Lin Zhaoxuan, his expression becoming more serious.
"However, let me make myself clear first."
"Being able to follow along doesn't mean you can act recklessly."
"Once inside, the ritual implements are kept as ritual implements, and the people are kept as people."
"If you get carried away with your tempers and disobey orders, you'll still be sending yourselves to your deaths."
Lin Zhaoxuan's eyes lit up, and he immediately replied, "Understood!"
Zhou Heng breathed a sigh of relief and nodded quickly.
Song Qinghe carefully retrieved the Tai Chi Sealing Disc into her palm, as if afraid that Lu Yuan would change his mind; her movements were very quick.
Seeing this, Lu Yuan didn't say anything, but simply stood up and dusted off the hem of his clothes.
He glanced at the three of them one last time and said calmly, "If you're going to follow, then stop making empty promises."
"When you go down there later, show me what you're really capable of."
"If we cooperate well, we might be able to live a little longer."
After speaking, he turned and looked at the lingering shadows deeper in the Savage Gully, his gaze darkening once more.
This time, Lin Zhaoxuan and the other two immediately nodded excitedly.
Lu Yuan had no idea what the three of them were so excited about. He simply sat down, picked up some dry rations, and said, "Get some rest. We'll set off at noon!"