Chapter 34: Apprenticeship Ceremony (asking for monthly ticket) Inside the Moving Mountain Hall, the apprenticeship ceremony, which seemed complicated but actually did not involve much, had come to an end. The founder of the temple was called the Taoist Banshan. Lin Jue and the girl knelt on the cushion in front of the statue of the ancestor with solemn expressions. A colorful cat was lazily lying at the master's feet, staring at their behavior with curiosity, but it felt bored and began to yawn. Taoist Yunhe stood at the front. "From today on, you are the twelfth generation descendants of my Fuqiu Temple. Although I met Qingyao first, I became her disciple only from this moment on. If we talk about your fate with me, Lin Jue came first, so the two of you will be ranked according to your age. Lin Jue is the senior brother, and Qingyao is the junior sister." "Disciple knows." Lin Jue said very calmly. "Disciple knows."
The girl behind him followed his example. There were seven Taoists sitting on both sides. At first glance, these seven people seem normal, but the first middle-aged Taoist on the left, who is also the eldest brother, may have just come back from digging, with mud all over his feet. Another one is drowsy, one is drunk, and one is tilting his head to play with the tail of a nearby orange cat, and his expression seems to be even more bored than the cat on the altar. Only Taoist Yunhe looked the most serious. "I practice the Yin-Yang spiritual method and follow the Yin-Yang path. In addition, the ancestor left seven kinds of magic in my temple, namely alchemy, bean soldiers, gathering beasts and birds, medicine, spirit writing, drama and stone pulverization. "Later, as my descendants traveled around the world and made friends with people, the magic skills in the temple were much more than these seven. However, we still continued the tradition and mainly used these seven skills. “Therefore, throughout the generations of my temple, I have only accepted eight disciples in each generation. Except for the first disciple who will inherit the Fuqiu Temple in the future and must learn all seven, the other seven disciples must major in one of them. "This was an accident. I came down the mountain intending to accept one last disciple, but I didn't expect to meet you two." The old Taoist glanced at them: "Although this is an exception, the tradition left by the ancestors must still be followed. As I am old and my health is getting worse, I can't help but worry about teaching two people at the same time. You two can choose one to inherit this last method of stone-breaking, and I will teach you personally. The other one can learn anything you want, you can go to my brothers, or come to me, or you can learn stone-breaking from me. "But is there anyone who volunteers?" The old Taoist asked them. Now that the apprenticeship ceremony has come, there is finally something for them to decide. Everyone knows that it is definitely better to be taught by the master himself, so this volunteering is naturally not a volunteering to learn from him, but a volunteering to give up the opportunity. The girl lowered her head in silence. But Lin Jue felt that she was secretly looking at him. "..." Lin Jue couldn't help but find it funny. No wonder this little girl has been so diligent and competitive all the way, always competing with him to do all the hard work. She met the master a few days earlier than Lin Jue, so she probably already knew or guessed all this, and she might have wanted to compete with her "senior brother" for performance since then.
It's human nature. Maybe in her opinion, the reason why I was picking up firewood for fire, fetching water and asking for directions on the road was that I had the same idea as her. Later, I actually compared myself with him. Thinking back to the time when she often looked at him on the road, and followed him while he was climbing the mountain, and when he was moving a large rock that was washed down by the summer rain on the road, she was shocked, but at the same time she gritted her teeth and exerted all her strength to move another rock, often getting very tired, Lin Jue suddenly found it a little funny. What a smart little girl. But how could he compete with her? "Master, Junior Sister is younger than me, so please let her take on this opportunity of being taught by Master personally." "Have you decided?" The voice of Taoist Yunhe came from the front. "Think about it." Lin Jue couldn't help but look to the side. Just happened to meet the little girl's surprised eyes. Seems quite unbelievable. Lin Jue saw it but couldn't help thinking - What is this little girl thinking at this moment? Is she thinking that she is retreating to advance? Or is she wondering why she and I have been competing with each other all the way? "Good! This is the style of my Fuqiu Temple!" Taoist Yunhe said, "In that case, you can pick any other spell from these seven, or anything else is fine, but you must learn one of the seven. Find the senior brother who has chosen the spell. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. But having said that, although I am older and have practiced for a few more years, my learning is quite messy. To be honest, my attainments in any one subject may not be much better than your senior brothers." "Disciple knows." "Good boy," said a senior brother, who was the one who smelled of alcohol and seemed hungover. "My bean soldiers can be made into soldiers by throwing beans. If you want to learn this, you can come to me tomorrow afternoon. If you want to drink, you can also come to me. Don't come in the morning. I won't wake up in the morning." "Come find me if you want to learn alchemy." Several senior brothers seemed very enthusiastic and spoke up one after another. "Thank you, brothers." Lin Jue thanked him sincerely. "According to the rules and traditions, when you join Taoism, you should take a Taoist name. Usually, if it is a two-character name, you add a character in the middle, and if it is a three-character name, you change a character in the middle. We are the Lingfa School, which is more like a wild school in the eyes of the Fulu School and the Danding School. The rules are not so strict, but we also take a name." The old Taoist continued, and waved his hand to knock down the colorful civet cat that climbed up the statue of the Moving Mountain Patriarch: “This year it’s the turn of a square character. "Your name is Lin Jue, so your Taoist name is Lin Fangjue. "Qingyao's Taoist name is Liu Fangyao. "Remember, normally no one calls us, and we don't write green words or green seals, so they are not used. "As for the Taoist name, it is for you to choose it yourself. When you are older and have achieved success in your practice, and you can see clearly what you have done, your heart, and your achievements, you can choose one based on these." The old Taoist waved his hand. "That's all for you to become my disciple. There are two rooms, each of you can choose one. I'll ask a tailor to make your robes for you down the mountain in a few days. You'll have two meals a day, one in the morning and one in the evening, and you just need to listen to the bells. In addition, you have to go to the Moving Mountain Hall to do morning lessons and recite scriptures before dawn every morning. If you have anything else to do or want to learn some Dharma or spread some Taoism, I'll come and call you, and your senior brother will tell you the rest." "understood."
"understood!" The girl was still imitating Lin Jue, but her attitude was better than Lin Jue's. The old Taoist turned around and walked inside. Several senior brothers did not disperse, but stood up and surrounded them, looking at the two junior brothers and sisters as if they were curious. "Do you remember my name?" "How old are you?" "How did the master meet you and accept you as his disciple?" "Stop arguing, stop arguing, don't scare the junior brothers and sisters." Senior Brother Lu Wu said to them in a gentle manner, "Ignore them, follow me first and choose your house." There are more monk rooms in Fuqiu Temple than guest halls, and they are all on both sides of the temple. At this time, the brothers cleaned out two rooms: One is a proper kasaya room, because according to the old Taoist priest, the tradition of Fuqiu Temple has always been like this, with one master and eight apprentices in each generation, and the number of kasaya rooms should be fixed. This room is obviously more exquisite, in addition to the bed, there are also wardrobes, bookshelves, desks and chairs, and hooks for hanging clothes, so it should be very comfortable to live in. The other room seemed to be a converted living room, with only a bed and an octagonal table that looked like it was put in temporarily. "Choose for yourselves." The eldest brother gave them the choice. But what is there to choose from? The little junior sister looked at Lin Jue with her eyes wide open and opened her mouth. Just as she was about to say that she would give the better room to this senior brother, Lin Jue had already walked into the second room with his books on his back. "Okay, you can stay in this room. But don't worry, if you need any equipment, just call your Sixth Senior Brother, he will make it for you, maybe it will be better than the one in our room." The eldest senior brother said, "Don't be afraid of troubling him, he likes mortise and tenon carpentry the most, and he enjoys it." "Just look for me." A Taoist who looked to be in his twenties said. "Thank you." Before they became disciples, the old Taoist priest told them the names of each of their senior brothers. The sixth senior brother seems to be called Huang Shiyu, and he specializes in spirit writing. The second senior brother is Yan Xuanyi, who seems to have a quiet personality and is mainly learning alchemy; the third senior brother is Li Miaolin, who smells of alcohol and is mainly learning Doubing; the fourth senior brother is Hu Mengjin, who is mainly learning the method of gathering beasts and taming birds. It is said that the clouded leopard sleeping in the Taoist temple today is his good friend; The fifth brother, Jingqi, studied medicine, but I don't know how it differs from the medical skills of ordinary doctors down the mountain; the seventh brother is Leyou, who mainly studies drama; "We are all brothers, so why should we be polite?" The eldest brother also told them some things to note in the temple, about the Lingfa sect, where the dining hall and the kitchen were, how to address and greet pilgrims and other Taoists when they met them outside, and what they had to do every day. He didn't say much, but it was all in great detail. The other brothers did not leave either, and they were all watching them from the side. It seemed that the atmosphere in the Taoist temple was not cold at all. Lin Jue felt calm and at ease, and naturally wrote everything down. The little girl was just like other people of her age who came to a strange place. She felt uneasy and nervous, so naturally she couldn't remember anything she said and could only pretend to remember it. "You guys should rest first." "Remember that the ringing of the bell at night means dinner." Only then did many of the brothers disperse.
Lin Jue and his junior sister looked at each other, smiled slightly, and then walked back to the room. He put the bookcase at the foot of the wall, looked around the room, took out a few books including an ancient book and placed them under the pillow, then put the hatchet and whistle at the foot of the wall, took out the clothes, folded them and placed them next to the pillow, and placed the remaining dry food on the eight-immortals table. After having some sundries, some things that belonged to him, he looked at this simple house and felt a little relieved. What's there not to live in? This room is much more spacious than my room in Shu Village. Lin Jue simply lay down on the bed. But I couldn't help thinking in my heart. It sounds like practicing Taoism is not an easy thing, and there are other miscellaneous tasks to be done in a Taoist temple. But it is much better than searching for a path of practice alone in fear and wandering around the world without any roots or support. However, according to his new master, he only has a few years left to live, and the tradition of Fuqiu Temple is that once the master dies, the other disciples must go down the mountain. He doesn't know what their options are, but only the eldest disciple can stay on the mountain to inherit the temple and become the abbot, and then accept his own disciples to pass on the Fuqiu Temple's techniques. By this calculation, I can stay in the mountains for a few years. "They come, the security." Lin Jue made up his mind to learn all the spiritual methods and magic spells of Fuqiu Temple within a few years. (End of this chapter)