Under one person: I, Zhang Zhiwei, the arrogant Zhang.

Chapter 631: The Secret of Immortality Passed Down to the Master
Zhang Zhiwei left the cliff and returned to the Tianshi Mansion. He first went to the Tianshi's private residence, but did not find his master. When he asked his fellow disciples in the mansion, they all said they didn't know.

"Master, why aren't you resting so late at night? What are you doing?"

Zhang Zhiwei didn't think too much and calculated with his fingers. He found that his master was drinking at the foot of the mountain, so he hurried over immediately.

Mount Longhu is very popular with pilgrims coming to pray to the gods on weekdays. On the first and fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year, there are even more people coming and going. There are even long queues on the way up the mountain, so many pubs in Shangqing Town are also open at night.

Zhang Zhiwei came to an inconspicuous tavern. As soon as he entered, he saw his master, uncle Yi Qian, uncle Zhang Yi, and senior Lan Gu sitting on the four sides of a square table. There was a jar of wine on the table, and the side dishes were a plate of peanuts, a plate of pig ears, and a plate of pig heads.

"Little Taoist Priest Zhiwei is here too!"

The shopkeeper at the counter at the door greeted me with a smile.

Because of a few big mouths, Zhang Zhiwei is quite famous in Shangqing Town and many people know him.

Zhang Zhiwei greeted the shopkeeper and asked him to add a seat.

The shopkeeper originally wanted to replace the table with a round one that could seat more people.

Zhang Zhiwei found it troublesome, so he asked for a stool and sat on the left side of his master, next to his uncle Zhang Yi.

The four people at the table looked at Zhang Zhiwei.

They were all close to Zhang Zhiwei and familiar with Zhang Zhiwei's Qi, but at this moment, they felt something different.

If Zhang Zhiwei's appearance and expression had not changed, they would even doubt whether this was the real person.

All people, or to be more precise, all living things have their own unique smell. Zhang Zhiwei originally had one too, but now it has changed. The previous smell is gone, and instead there is a faint fragrance.

This fragrance is pure and clean, without any impurities.

It did not come from the surface of the body, but rather from within his body and soul, emanating from the inside out. The smell made people feel relaxed and happy, and even the smell of alcohol on the table was dispelled.

Zhang Yi and Lan Gu looked at each other and had their own thoughts in mind. Some ancient books had records that "when immortals are born, the room is full of strange fragrance", just like the legendary Lu Zu.

The strange fragrance in the classics couldn't be the "strange fragrance" on Zhang Zhiwei's body... They were quite shocked.

It's amazing, is this caused by absorbing the essence of heaven and earth... Zhang Yi wanted to ask.

Zhang Jingqing spoke first. He coughed and asked knowingly:
"What are you here for?"

"My disciple is coming here, of course, to bring good news." Zhang Zhiwei said with a smile.

"You are always good news!" Zhang Jingqing smiled and picked up the wine jar, "Come, I will pour wine for Master Dai Tian."

He had seen all the conversations between Zhang Zhiwei and his fellow disciples. When those overconfident young Taoists came to Zhang Zhiwei to ask about the methods of cultivation, he almost couldn't sit still.

No one knows a son better than his father. A master is also a father. How could he not know the character of his disciple?

He is as talkative as a doormat. If this is passed on to his fellow disciples, wouldn't it be harmful to them as they are unworthy of the position?

He was about to rush over, but he didn't expect that Zhang Zhiwei not only didn't say a word, but also scolded the group of fellow disciples who were blinded by the strange skills.

In just a few words, the situation was stabilized.

Zhang Jingqing was deeply relieved about this. Although this kid's breakthrough made a big fuss and seemed ostentatious, which made him dislike him, the way he handled things made him very happy.

He even agreed with Zhang Zhiwei's decision to punish the elders by making them copy the "Tao Te Ching" 500 times, just to wake them up.

Seeing that his master was about to pour him some wine, Zhang Zhiwei quickly took the jar.

He would occasionally act unrestrained in front of his master, but he never really wanted to suppress his master's prestige.

"Master, it's enough as long as the intention is there!"

Zhang Zhiwei picked up the jar of wine, filled it up for his master first, and then poured it for himself.

Seeing this, Zhang Yi picked up the wine bowl and drank it in one gulp. He knocked on the bowl with chopsticks, making a crisp sound of ding ding ding.

"What about mine?"

"It's time to order!"

Just as Zhang Zhiwei was about to pour wine for his uncle, Aunt Lan hit his uncle Zhang Yi on the head with her chopsticks.

"I told you not to knock on the bowl while eating!"

Uncle Master Zhang Yi was as calm as ever, his face expression unchanged and his heart rate calm. He quietly put down his chopsticks and pointed at the wine bowl in front of him with a normal expression.

Zhang Zhiwei was grinning and pouring wine for his uncle.

The corners of Zhang Jingqing's mouth twitched slightly. The Heavenly Master was a very serious person and usually didn't laugh unless he couldn't help it.

Yi Qian had already burst into laughter.

Zhang Yi glared at Yi Qian, turned his head to look at Zhang Zhiwei who was grinning, and changed the subject:

"After becoming a Saint Thief, breaking through the shackles of the soul, and absorbing the essence of heaven and earth, what difference does it feel like?"

Zhang Zhiwei thought for a moment and said, "Looking at the world again, it's like an empty house. It looks clean, but when the sun shines in through the window, you can see a myriad of dust. This is how it feels when the bridge between heaven and earth is connected."

"That's quite profound. Then tell me, is there a lot of dust around us?" Zhang Yi asked again.

Zhang Zhiwei nodded and said, "A lot. Everything has Qi. On the mountain, there is more Qi emitted by mountains, rivers, plants and trees, while below the mountain, there is more Qi emitted by people."

"Which kind of Qi..." Zhang Yi paused and said, "The one that tastes the best."

Everyone at the table fell silent, and looked at Zhang Zhiwei, wanting to know his answer.

Zhang Zhiwei said: "Of course it is the Qi emitted by humans, especially the Qi emitted by extraordinary people, which is better."

"Do you know what you are saying?" Yi Qian frowned.

He was a little worried. Qingxuan was an outstanding disciple of the Tianshi Mansion back then and was placed with high hopes. But after he mastered this method, his temperament gradually changed and he began to practice by eating humans. Now Zhang Zhiwei said that the Qi emitted by humans was better, which made him a little uneasy.

"It's the truth!"

Zhang Zhiwei took a sip of wine, picked up a piece of pork head with chopsticks and put it into his mouth, saying:

"If not for this, Qing Xuan wouldn't rely on sucking people to practice martial arts."

"Evil method!" Yi Qian said.

"So what do you think of this ability?" Zhang Jingqing asked.

He knew that Zhang Zhiwei's mind was high and not affected by delusions, so he was not worried that Zhang Zhiwei would go astray.

Of course, there is another situation, where one is not tempted by anything and purely subjectively thinks that sucking people to practice is nothing, just like eating and drinking water. This is scary, just like Feng Baobao killing people.

Zhang Zhiwei could also do this, although Zhang Jingqing felt that his apprentice would not do so.

But there are some things that you should ask, and this is your duty as a teacher.

Zhang Zhiwei thought for a moment and said, "In my opinion, it can be described by the words of Jigong: wine and meat pass through the intestines, but the Buddha remains in the heart. If people in the world want to imitate me, it would be like entering the devil's way!"

Zhang Jingqing fell into deep thought after hearing this.

Zhang Yi asked: "Why?"

Zhang Zhiwei said: "A saint thief can absorb the essence of heaven and earth for his own use. Humans are also the essence of heaven and earth, so they can naturally absorb it."

"So, the key to this ability is not that eating humans is a disaster. In fact, eating humans or not has no effect on the ability itself."

"It's like the saint Ji Gong. He ate pigeon meat and could vomit out live pigeons. He ate people and could vomit out live people. So, he didn't care about meat or vegetables."

"As for other ordinary practitioners, they don't have the realm of Jigong. If they learn from him, they will enter the devil's way. Therefore, they need to strictly observe the precepts and restrain their desires."

Zhang Jingqing knocked on the table with his hand: "You are right. Now that you have realized this, I am relieved."

"By the way, what's with the fragrance on your body?" Uncle Zhang Yi asked, "Although I haven't practiced the Saint Thief, I know from some classics that after practicing the Saint Thief, the Qi emitted by the body will be consistent with the surrounding environment and extremely difficult to detect. Why do you have a fragrance?"

Zhang Zhiwei explained: "The smell of a Saint Thief practitioner changes according to the smell of the Qi they absorb. If they accept everything and absorb everything, then the smell on their body will naturally be the smell of the surrounding environment."

"And the reason why I have a refreshing fragrance is because I don't absorb anything. I only absorb some of the Three Treasures of Heaven and Earth. These precious Qi merge with my own Three Treasures of Man and become this refreshing fragrance."

"The three treasures of heaven are the sun, moon, and stars, and the three treasures of earth are water, fire, and wind. You can actually separate them from this mixed Yuan Qi of heaven and earth?"

Everyone present was very surprised, even Zhang Jingqing was no exception. This was not simple. This kid understood something that many people in ancient books had been seeking but unable to obtain as soon as he learned it.

"You are quite picky. You actually managed to resist the temptation of the essence of heaven and earth and didn't take it all!"

Zhang Jingqing smiled and said, he was very pleased to know his apprentice's choice. This was the way of a saint.

“Who doesn’t want to eat something delicious?”

Zhang Zhiwei picked up a few pieces of pork head and ate them while saying, "Master, you know I can't keep secrets. When people ask me about it, I want to pass it on to everyone I meet. I'll pass it on to you so that my fellow brothers won't have to worry about it. If anyone wants to learn from me in the future, I'll just let them come to you. I won't have to worry."

Zhang Jingqing asked, "Are you trying to find a decent excuse to pass this method on to me?"

"Master, you worry too much!" Zhang Zhiwei said.

"Do you think that we old guys have lost too much of our innate energy? Do you want us to live longer?" Zhang Jingqing continued.

Zhang Zhiwei remained silent. He indeed thought so.

"At your current level, you shouldn't be unable to see through life and death," Zhang Jingqing said, "or in other words, our life and death shouldn't affect your state of mind."

"Objectively, this is the case, but subjectively, I don't want you to die. It has nothing to do with other factors," said Zhang Zhiwei.

"You don't have to worry about things like life and death..."

Zhang Jingqing pondered for a moment and said, "Even if we old guys die one day, something will still exist in this objective world and will not really disappear. So life and death are not important to me."

"Reincarnation?" Zhang Zhiwei looked at his master in surprise.

"I'm not talking about reincarnation," Zhang Jingqing shook his head and paused, then said, "You also know that my teacher participated in the Westernization Movement and studied at the Tongwenguan in Beijing, where he learned a lot of Western knowledge."

The Tongwenguan in Beijing was the predecessor of Peking University. Although Zhang Jingqing was a Taoist priest, few people could match him in terms of cultural literacy. The more respected a person is, the more studious he is.

The same goes for Zuo Ruotong. Even in this era, the Trinity School at the foot of the mountain teaches multiple languages.

The same goes for the old Taoist priest in the plot. He is a hundred years old and still learning English in order to make friends.

Zhang Jingqing said: "I found that cultures in different places are different, but they also have commonalities, such as the reincarnation you mentioned."

"In every cultural context, there is a conclusion about this matter, and everyone believes that they are absolutely right."

"In my opinion, they may all be valid and correct, but this is not the most basic thing. They just build their own style framework based on the basic thing."

"Remember, they are the frameworks of their respective styles. Whether it is Buddhism or Taoism, they are all based on this foundation, but the frameworks are different."

All things return to one, and the underlying logic is the same. Different schools and civilizations simply blossom in their own way on this basis... Zhang Zhiwei remembered his master's words firmly. He had an intuition that this was very important.

Zhang Jingqing was silent for a moment, then continued:

"In order to prevent you from saying that Master Xuanmen doesn't speak human language and prefers those secret codes like knocking on the head three times to close the main door and putting hands behind the back, I will use a different method this time. I call this bottom layer the continuity of 'subjective'."

Zhang Jingqing waved his hand, and the golden light took shape, transforming into a human figure exactly like him, standing beside him.

"I made this out of golden light. I assume he is a person with the same makeup as me, even his memories and emotions are the same."

"Objectively, we are completely identical, without the slightest difference, but he is still not me, because he does not have my 'subjectivity'."

“‘Subjectivity’ is something unique in this world.”

"If we only count the five of us present, that means there are now five 'selves' with subjective perspectives."

Zhang Jingqing stretched out his finger, drew a horizontal line in the air, and then put five dots on the line.

"This is a horizontal axis. The five points on the axis are us. What about the vertical axis? Let's calculate it based on the time when Tianshi Mansion was established."

Zhang Jingqing drew an extremely long vertical axis in the center of the horizontal axis and said:
"It has been two thousand years since the establishment of our Tianshi Mansion. This vertical axis is much longer than the horizontal axis."

“And our subjective consciousness, on this vertical axis, only has less than a hundred years, so it is less than one twentieth of the vertical axis.”

Zhang Jingqing looked at everyone and said, "What do you think is the relationship between the horizontal and vertical axes, the subjective and the objective? Are their statuses equal?"

Yi Qian said: "More than twenty to one, it's definitely not equal!"

Zhang Yi said: "The subjective is us, and the objective is the Tianshi Mansion. We rely on the Tianshi Mansion to exist, which means that the subjective also relies on the objective to exist. If this is the case, then the status is naturally unequal."

Aunt Lan nodded: "I also think it's not equal."

But at this time, Zhang Zhiwei raised an objection: "What if I say it is equal?"

As he spoke, he stretched out his finger, with golden light flashing on his fingertips, and drew the short horizontal axis to the same length as the vertical axis:

"If they are equal, the subjective should exist as long as the objective exists."

"If the subjective is 'I' and the objective is the Tianshi Mansion, then it should be that 'I' and the Tianshi Mansion exist together."

"That is to say, as long as the Tianshi Mansion exists, 'I' should exist as long as that."

But when the Tianshi Mansion first came into existence, I didn't exist... His heart skipped a beat.

(End of this chapter)