I changed the world.

Page 138

Li Jingxin was exceptionally busy all day. Some distinguished guests who came to participate in the vegetarian ritual left one after another. Before leaving, many of them needed him, the new abbot, to personally talk to them and see them off.

Although his final confirmation as abbot still requires imperial approval, everyone knows that unless there are special circumstances, it is just a formality. Now, he has begun to officially exercise the rights of abbot.

Of course, the actual enthronement ceremony will have to wait until all the official procedures are completed.

After all, he was already over sixty years old. Moreover, he had just experienced a strong mental shock. After a whole day of mundane affairs, Li Jingxin couldn't help but feel a little weak and short of breath, especially after dinner when he had a special meeting with Director Qian of the Religious Affairs Bureau.

In fact, this wasn't the first time Li Jingxin had met Director Qian; they had exchanged a few encounters on other occasions. However, this time, it was clear that Director Qian was much more enthusiastic and polite than ever before. Moreover, his conversation subtly inquired about information regarding Master Xiao's ascension to immortality.

Furthermore, for some reason, Li Jingxin felt that Director Qian seemed to have developed a rather strong interest in the cultivation methods of the Xuanmen sect and some legends about masters that were circulating outside.

However, although Li Jingxin did gain more understanding of these topics after his trip to Chengzong Tower, he could not reveal these insights even to the disciples of the sect, let alone to outsiders.

Therefore, on these topics, Li Jingxin could only play along with Director Qian, either changing the subject or pretending to be profound, and in short, he managed to temporarily get through this matter.

In addition, he also had to meet the envoy sent by the royal family. She was a close female official of the empress, who brought him the empress's admiration for the Yunxiao lineage and Master Xiao, and invited him to come to the capital next year when it was convenient to explain the classics of Taoism to the empress and others.

This invitation is not easy to refuse. Of course, there's no need to set off immediately. We should wait until things are settled here and everything is ready.

However, after returning to his residence, Li Jingxin did not go to bed early as he usually did. Instead, he asked his disciple Zhao to fetch the list of disciples in the temple, as well as some other things.

"Master, this is the list of disciples in the temple that you requested."

"And these items are all what you requested..."

“Alright, just put it aside.” Li Jingxin, who was sitting cross-legged on the couch with his eyes closed, opened his eyes, glanced at the disciple standing respectfully to the side, nodded, and then said, “It’s late, you should go back and rest.”

Zhao nodded in agreement, then excused himself and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Li Jingxin sat with his eyes closed for a while longer, and only got up and went to the door after his disciple had gone far away. The bedroom he was in was a separate small courtyard, which was quite secluded.

Li Jingxin observed for a moment and, seeing that no one was outside and that Zhao had indeed left as he had instructed, turned around, closed the door, locked it, and returned to his desk inside.

He turned on the desk lamp and first took out the list of disciples that **Zhao had sent and began to look through it. The copy in Li Jingxin's hand was a duplicate, copied from the main book. The main book was kept in the scripture pavilion and guarded by special personnel, so it was not easy to take it out.

For Li Jingxin, this copy was enough. He opened the book, flipped forward, and quickly found his name.

He entered the sect in the third year of Jianguang (1268), with the secular name Li Xin. He became a disciple of Xiao Daoguang, who was then the abbot of the sutra, and was given the Dharma name Jingxin. He was a disciple of the Jing generation.

His gaze lingered on the record for a moment, and he couldn't help but recall the scene when he first entered Yunxiao Temple. At that time, his master was not yet old and had an air of otherworldly grace...

He looked up at the sky outside the window; the night was warm and gentle. Li Jingxin remained silent for a moment, sighed, and then continued flipping through the pages.

After flipping through several dozen pages, his gaze stopped on a name.

Xiao Daoguang was his master. He entered the sect in Yan'an after ten years and was the most accomplished disciple of that generation at Yunxiao Temple.

Li Jingxin's gaze swept past Xiao Daoguang and continued to turn the pages. His eyes darted back and forth, and soon he found his target: "Zhang Taihe".

This was a disciple who entered the temple in the third year of the Xuanping era. His secular name was Zhang He. He entered the temple in the same batch as Cao Taishan, Xiao Daoguang's master, and was the second oldest among those disciples after Cao Taishan. After entering the temple, he and Cao Taishan first entered as cleaning disciples. They were both of the "Tai" generation and were given the Dharma name Taihe.

However, just three years later, in the sixth year of Xuanping, Zhang Taihe and Cao Taishan were on their way down the mountain when they were caught in a mudslide. Cao Taishan survived, but Zhang Taihe perished.

However, according to the master, this Zhang Taihe and Grand Uncle did not die; all of this was just a way to deceive people.

He simply entered Kunlun, and after that, his uncle also received another Dharma name according to Kunlun's rules—Chengguang.

"Grandmaster Uncle..." Li Jingxin's gaze was fixed on Zhang He's name, and he murmured to himself...

PS: The naming methods for Dharma names in various sects of the Da Zhao Xuan Men sect differ according to their respective rules. Some directly insert generational characters into the name, some are bestowed Dharma names with generational characters, some continue to use secular names and only use Dharma names in religious occasions, while others directly adopt Dharma names. This is similar to the real world, and may seem somewhat chaotic because there is indeed no unified standard. I consulted many materials for this detail, and Dharma names in the real world are generally similar.

Chapter 225 Does Yunxiao Mountain still wish to honor Kunlun?

After a long while, he closed the book again, placed it on the side of the desk, and then picked up the other bag that Wu Dezhao had just brought him.

Opening the bag revealed a variety of odds and ends, including a bottle of honey, a brush, vegetable oil, bone meal, candles, cinnabar ink, and other strange items.

Thanks to Wu Dezhao for finding all these things in such a short time, Li Jingxin checked them and nodded. The quality seemed pretty good. Especially the bone meal, which appeared to have been sifted; it looked like it was previously used as fertilizer in the temple.

Following the instructions in the letter left by his master, Li Jingxin took out a graduated measuring cup, mixed honey, vegetable oil, and bone meal in a certain ratio, and then began to stir...

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"Phew... this should be it." Having spent nearly an hour drawing the magic circle for the first time, Li Jingxin wiped the sweat from his brow. His right hand held a small pig bristle brush, while his left hand held a bowl of pale yellow, viscous liquid. A complex magic circle had been drawn on the ground in front of him, with various objects placed around it—burning candles, twigs, sand, and so on…

A slight dizziness appeared on his forehead, probably from squatting on the ground for too long... Li Jingxin chuckled self-deprecatingly, after all, he was getting on in years. It was just a pity that he obviously couldn't let his disciple do such a thing for him.

He then looked at the drawing on the table next to him and compared it with the drawing on the letter. He confirmed that he had not drawn it wrong.

Then, he took out the round jade pendant that had been placed in the envelope along with the letter, and placed it in a certain position on the magic circle.

Afterwards, Li Jingxin began reciting the incantation as instructed in the letter:

"Cloud script in the vast void, unfolding profound chapters. Sometimes distant, sometimes near, sometimes sinking, sometimes floating..."

The candle flames on the magic circle suddenly surged as Li Jingxin chanted his incantation, as if they had been doused with gasoline.

Seeing this, Li Jingxin quickly calmed himself down and continued reciting the incantation on the envelope...

The light from the magic circle grew brighter and brighter, and then the various patterns on the magic circle began to slowly rotate.