Chapter 360

Whether doing research or studying, everyone advocates a pure heart, which probably means having a child's heart.

Because human society is complicated, the world is like a yoke, and human feelings are like chains. Anyone who grows up in it is tied up by an invisible rope without exception. How can the imprisoned thoughts fly and innovate and imagine freely?

Xiaozhi is a child. Although her fate is rough and unbearable to look back, fortunately her thoughts are not bound and strangled. Only she can connect these monsters with the twelve zodiac signs in a wild and unconstrained way. Anyway, we, the adults who are not stingy with the most vicious hearts to guess the inner heart of the monster, can't think of this anyway.

However, after her reminder, we have to admit that it seems to be true!

Whether it is the monster that has appeared, or me, the dragon, and Xiaozhi, the little rabbit, they are all in the twelve zodiac signs!

The Fourteenth Patriarch seemed to like children like Xiao Zhi very much. He pulled Xiao Zhi to sit beside him, pinching Xiao Zhi's hand and arm from time to time, with deep affection in his eyes.

Putting aside the generation, he looked like a teenager at most. It was so strange to look at a little girl with such eyes.

I knew that the Fourteenth Patriarch must know something about the twelve zodiac signs. Seeing him like this, it was not easy to interrupt him, so I could only hold it back. I felt anxious and uncomfortable.

Xiao Zhi was very smart. He had already known that the person in front of him was not a human, but he was not afraid at all. Instead, he curiously poked the bullet hole on the Fourteenth Patriarch's tattered Taoist robe with his hand.

The Fourteenth Patriarch smiled and suddenly asked: "Girl, do you want to learn a lot of skills like your brother Jingzhe? No one will dare to bully you from now on?"

It was obvious that he had taken a fancy to Xiao Zhi and wanted to take her into the Zhenwu Temple!

Without waiting for Xiao Zhi to speak, Brother Yaozi got anxious: "Fourteenth Ancestor, my uncle has long said that Jingzhe is the last disciple. He only has this one disciple in this life and will not accept any more disciples!"

"Why are you anxious? Are you afraid that I will force your uncle to break his promise and gain wealth?"

Fourteenth Ancestor swung his sleeves fiercely and glanced at Brother Yaozi with a sinister look. This was the first time he was angry. The aura on his body made people creepy. Even Brother Yaozi couldn't stand it and subconsciously stepped back a little. But when he turned his head to look at Xiao Zhi again, he immediately felt like a spring breeze and asked: "Are you willing?"

Xiao Zhi was a little at a loss, twisting the corners of his clothes with both hands.

The Fourteenth Ancestor waved his hand and said softly: "You have a bad fate. You can see things that others cannot see. You are destined to eat the bowl of Xuanmen since you were born. This business is very dangerous. Even in the peaceful and prosperous times, there are murderous intentions everywhere. If you want to live in peace, you can't do it without a skill. If you want to learn skills, just kneel down and kowtow to me three times. It's that simple. I have a skill to teach you!"

He smiled calmly, but I felt treacherous no matter how I looked at him. He was just like a wolf grandmother.

Brother Yaozi probably never expected this to happen and was stunned.

Zhang Xinya opened her mouth slightly, surprised and said: "You want to take Xiao Zhi as your apprentice?"

"Why? Is it not possible?"

The fourteenth ancestor sneered: "There are five arts in Taoism, mountain, medicine, destiny, divination, and physiognomy. They are vast and profound. It is difficult for a poor person to study one of them thoroughly in his lifetime. At that time, more than a dozen of our brothers and sisters had their own strengths, and they were all first-class people. The only one who didn't count was the master of your lineage. He was obsessed with medicine and was just a country doctor who carried a medicine basket and collected herbs all over the ground. Why do you think we all went down the mountain and left him to watch the gate? Because he was the worst! As a result, he left his own inheritance, and we have a lot of skills but can only hide them. Is there such a reason in the world? You bow to him three times a day, and to us once every three days. He is committing sins when he enjoys the blessings! I won't say anything about this. It's like this according to the rules. You younger generations have not forgotten us ancestors. Now at least you have met a good talent and beautiful jade. Tell me which rule doesn't allow us to accept apprentices?"

Zhang Xinya was silent for a long time, unable to say a word!

Indeed, there is no sect rule that does not allow this!

It's just... having a ghost as a master is a bit weird no matter how you look at it.

Lao Bai pushed me away roughly, flattering me beyond words, stepped forward and said loudly: "Congratulations to the Fourteenth Ancestor for having a good disciple! However, I have something to say, but I don't know whether I should say it or not."

Having said that, before the Fourteenth Ancestor asked him to speak, he said to himself: "The most feared thing between brothers is unfair treatment. Look, you have a good disciple here, but there are more than a dozen ancestors in the Zhenwu Banner who don't have disciples. For the sake of the relationship between you brothers, I recommend someone to you."

He put his head in front of the Fourteenth Ancestor. The bruises from being beaten by Brother Yaozi had not yet disappeared, and his face was a piece of moldy pig head. It was self-evident who he was going to recommend.

The Fourteenth Ancestor was a little overwhelmed by his sudden enthusiasm, but soon calmed down, looked at Lao Bai with a strange look, and said hesitantly: "We are not a scrap collection station."

Lao Bai's face turned black, and he looked at the Fourteenth Ancestor fiercely, and retreated to the side in anger.

"It's a mess, it's all messed up..."

Brother Yaozi looked at Xiao Zhi and sighed: "Xiao Zhi recognized Jingzhe as her brother. If you accept her as a disciple, she will be the same generation as my uncle. We are all juniors. How can we get along with each other on weekdays..."

Xiao Zhi didn't know how to choose at first. When she heard this, she immediately hid behind me and timidly said that she would follow me in the future and didn't want to become my disciple.

I secretly sighed that this girl was so smart on weekdays, why did she act stupidly at this time? This is a great opportunity! ! She has a bad fate. She is infected with people like us. She can only eat this bowl of rice in this life. The fourteenth ancestor said something right. The rice in this business is mixed with the smell of blood. If you don't have some skills, you will be eaten up by others without skin and bones. My master is unwilling to accept disciples. I am also a half-bottled thing. What can I teach her? The fourteenth ancestor likes her. This is a good thing. As long as she can settle down, it doesn't matter whether she is a human or a ghost. A skill is the most practical!

At that moment, I pulled her out from behind and pressed her directly in front of the fourteenth ancestor. I pressed her head and kowtowed to the fourteenth ancestor three times, and said softly, the ceremony is complete.

This scene seems familiar. My father forced me to become his disciple in this way. His deep affection for his child, only now can I peek into it.

Xiao Zhi thought I didn't want her anymore. Her long eyelashes fluttered and tears came pouring down. Da Huang growled and looked at me fiercely, ready to pounce on me at any time. The Fourteenth Ancestor turned his head to look at it, tucked his tail between his legs and screamed, turned around and ran away, hiding in the corner and not daring to come out. I couldn't figure out how a good tiger could make a scream similar to that of a beaten pug.

The Fourteenth Ancestor was in a good mood, with a smile on his face. He waved his hand and said generously: "Let's talk about each other. We Taoists want to be free and easy. Don't be bound by those rules and regulations. That's what corrupt scholars can do."

I hugged Xiao Zhi and tried to comfort her for a long time. The little girl was sure that I just wanted her to become a disciple to learn skills, not to abandon her. Then she blinked her bright eyes and smiled.

I sighed, found a clean place to sit down, looked at the Fourteenth Patriarch and said, "You have an apprentice, and your skills can be passed down. The regret in your heart has finally been filled, right? Can you show your disciples a way out now?"

The Fourteenth Patriarch saw that the topic was brought back by me, but he was not in a hurry to instruct me. Instead, he said, "There are thousands of animals in the world, why are there only these twelve kinds of zodiac animals passed down as zodiac signs? Have you ever thought about this reason?"

Since the matter has been linked to the twelve zodiac signs, how could I not have thought about these?

The twelve zodiac signs account for a large proportion of traditional culture. There are related references in the unearthed Qin bamboo slips, which shows that there were already relevant considerations in the Qin Dynasty. Up to now, there are many theories about the source of culture.

The most famous one is of course the Jade Emperor's canonization. This is nonsense. I have seen ghosts, but I have never seen gods. Our Taoist so-called magic of asking gods to protect disciples is actually using the power of heaven and earth to suppress evil spirits. Humans have launched countless rockets, but no gods have been stabbed down from the sky by a thousand-year killer.

I remember watching a cartoon when I was a child, which tells the story of the twelve zodiac animals saving humans, so humans use this to commemorate them. This is completely a literary creation and cannot be true.

The tooth-cutter turned people into animals, not to reproduce myths and legends. I think it should be a kind of mysterious practice. After thinking about it, I think there are only two explanations that can be related to this.

One is the star theory. The ancients called the stars between the ecliptic and the equator the 28 constellations, and divided the celestial sphere into 12 equal parts, which were represented by the 12 earthly branches and matched with the 12 zodiac signs. From this point of view, the 12 zodiac signs may be related to the 28 constellations in the sky. The 28 constellations are governed by the seven stars. This is a metaphysical pattern. I think Yaju may want to create this pattern and eventually seize the power of the celestial sphere.

The other is the Jupiter theory. Jupiter has a 12-year cycle, and the 12 zodiac signs correspond to Jupiter's cycle. Jupiter is also Jupiter. The ancients used this to record years. I heard that many qigong practitioners tried to use the power of Jupiter to achieve eternity. To put it bluntly, they pursued longevity. Needless to say, the result was definitely failure. Yaju made people into evil spirits corresponding to the 12 zodiac signs. I suspect that this guy also wants to go this way, using the 12 zodiac signs to correspond to Jupiter, and eventually use the power of Jupiter to achieve immortality.

The Fourteenth Ancestor was not in a hurry. He listened to me quietly before saying, "This is the problem of the ritual officer. He always likes to borrow the power of heaven and earth. So, you guess that this yaji cultivated the twelve zodiac animals, and ultimately wanted to borrow the power of heaven and earth to form a certain formation to achieve a certain purpose? Why don't you think that these twelve animals are extraordinary in themselves? It is precisely because they are extraordinary that they are listed in the twelve zodiac animals!"

He obviously wanted to guide my thinking mode and didn't want me to be limited to the ritual officer's thinking mode.

Maybe it's really like what my master said, I am a relatively stupid person in this aspect, and I don't have talent. Even if his hints are very obvious, I still can't draw any conclusions.

Rat, ox, what's so extraordinary about these things?

Or, there is a dragon in the twelve zodiac animals, but who the hell has seen a dragon? Legend has it that the dragon is extraordinary, that's for sure. The key is that if you say it's extraordinary without seeing it, then all the extraordinary things are all imagined out of thin air, and are illusory!

The Fourteenth Patriarch shook his head, probably because he saw how stupid I was. He stopped trying to guide me and sighed, "This bastard did all this to save people..."