Chapter 341 — The Daoist Sect's Mathematical Heart-Method
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
"The Daoist sect has always been idle and slack; it does not forbid others to climb the mountain. There aren't so many rules as that.
" The old Daoist looked at the lame old man again, and his face changed abruptly. "You may go up the mountain," he shouted, "but this old man may not. He must stay here!
" Shen Mu was puzzled.
The old Daoist said angrily, "I did not recognize him before! It was hearing his voice that brought it back.
The Shadow Thief of those years ran up Mount Yuxu and turned the place upside down, and all but carried off my Yuxu Mountain itself!
" The lame old man stammered, "How many years ago was that? All these years I have turned over a new leaf and mended my ways.
" "Here!
Here! Here!
" The old Daoist paid him no mind and began calling his dog, and a big yellow dog came ambling out of the latrine, wagging its tail. The old Daoist shouted, "A dog can never change its taste for dung!
" The lame old man was enraged within: "This old Daoist is cursing me in every way he can think of!
" Furious as he was, his face still wore a smile that was like a warm spring breeze. Shen Mu's heart gave a lurch, and he silently offered up a prayer for the old Daoist.
He carried the headman on his back and led the dragon qilin up the mountain, when the lame old man suddenly flickered like a ghost and vanished, laughing aloud: "You won't let me up the mountain? Then stop me if you can!
" The old Daoist hurried in pursuit, and the two disappeared into Mount Yuxu.
A while later, halfway up the mountain, Shen Mu came upon the old Daoist crouched stark naked and free of all encumbrance on a cliff; seeing him riding the dragon qilin up the slope, the old Daoist hastily hugged his arms around himself. Shen Mu pretended not to see and walked past.
The old Daoist let out a breath of relief, and then suddenly Shen Mu turned back.
"How does one get to see the Daoist Master? " The old Daoist, ashamed and angry at once, said, "Daoist Master Lin is in the Yuxu Temple at the summit! " Shen Mu thanked him, took out a garment, and tossed it to him; the old Daoist caught it in a fluster and was about to give thanks when Shen Mu had already passed by the cliff.
At the summit he found flying waterfalls and flowing springs, and many disciples of the Daoist sect practicing sword beneath the falls; beside the waterfall lay the sect's Fourteen Chapters of the Daoist Sword, set out there, open to anyone who wished to look.
The disciples practiced in a strange, outlandish way, first running calculations with all manner of computing tools; Shen Mu saw that they had refined the Diagram of No Ultimate, the Diagram of the Great Ultimate, the Diagram of the Four Symbols, the Diagram of the Five Elements, the Diagram of the Eight Trigrams, and other calculating tools into treasures, joining them into three-dimensional spatial calculating instruments, endlessly running their computations.
"These Daoists look like masters who read feng shui," Shen Mu thought.
When a result came out, the disciples would leap up, their flying swords whirling, their swordsmanship quite remarkable. Shen Mu could not help but halt and watch a while, praising them inwardly: "The Daoist sect is worthy of being a holy land; the scholarly spirit runs deep.
" A young Daoist nun, stuck on a problem she could not solve and scratching her ears and cheeks in her impatience, caught sight of Shen Mu and hurried over, greeting him: "Senior brother, who are you looking for? " Shen Mu jumped down.
"Is Daoist Master Lin Xuan in? My name is Shen Mu; I have business with him. " "The Daoist Master is in the Yuxu Temple; he only came back from Lesser Jade Capital two days ago," said the young nun, pointing at a temple nearby. Shen Mu glanced at her computing tools, reached out a finger, and flicked it twice over her bagua board.
"The sixty-four hexagram celestial numbers - solve it this way and it will come out.