Chapter 67: Five Occult Lineages

The tea had been steeped through several rounds already, and its flavor had long since faded to something like plain water. However, the newly added hot water still carried heat, and in the rising steam, those turbulent past events had completely seized my attention. Several times I lifted the teacup to my lips and forgot to drink.

Old Man Jiang had stopped speaking. He sat there alone, smoking a dry tobacco pipe Tap, tap, slowly puffing away. I grew anxious and could not help asking, “Master, what happened later? Did you fire the gun later?”

“I did,” he said. “At first I did not dare. My master said that a real man should settle grudges freely and decisively. In that kind of world, there was no bright and just heaven to uphold fairness for anyone. Later on, my master took most of Liu San’s wealth and had the Zhao Family distribute it to the villagers. Then I left that village with them.”

“Then what happened?” The story was too gripping, and I could not help but keep asking.

“What do you mean then what happened? I am telling you all this to make you understand something. You have three senior uncles, and including me that makes four of us. The four of us each inherited different abilities from your grandmaster, just so you understand which lineage you belong to.”

Old Man Jiang grew impatient with my many questions and went straight to the point.

“Isn’t there Senior Uncle Li, Senior Uncle Chen, and you, three people? Why is there still another one?” I asked, confused.

“Later on, we took in another junior apprentice, Wang Lipu. That is your Senior Uncle Wang.”

“Master, where are all the senior uncles now? Why are you not together with them? Are they all together somewhere?” To be honest, I really wanted to meet these senior uncles. Life with just my master felt a bit lonely.

Old Man Jiang fell silent. Even the dry tobacco pipe he had lifted to his mouth was forgotten. His expression once again showed the same sorrow as that night.

But this old man never really acted properly, so I could not tell whether he was truly sad. I could not help but ask again about my grandmaster. In my heart, my grandmaster was far more fascinating than this cheap master of mine. A true man, a wandering hero of the martial world, excellent skills. He was everything a child could dream of.

As for my master, he was vulgar, liked looking at young women, greedy for food, and bullied children. His faults were too many to count.

Unexpectedly, the moment I asked that, Old Man Jiang’s body trembled slightly. I did not know if it was my imagination, but I even saw his eyes turn a little red. The next moment, he suddenly flew into a rage and struck me on the head with his tobacco pipe.

“You little silly kid, why do you have so many questions? Do you believe I will make you copy the Dao De Jing one hundred times? One hundred times! One hundred times!”

Because he was so agitated, he repeated one hundred times twice, and the tobacco pipe struck my head so hard it hurt. I admitted I was scared and shrank my neck, no longer daring to ask.

After calming down a little, Old Man Jiang said, “Your grandmaster was a peerless genius. According to the five branches of Daoist metaphysical arts, aside from those ancient figures, no one in the past thousand years could master all five branches. But your grandmaster said he had an opportunity and was fortunate enough to study all five.”

“Which five branches?” Honestly, I knew almost nothing about these basic things. My master had never explained them in detail. Now that he finally mentioned them, I was very interested.

“Mountain, medicine, fate, divination, and physiognomy. Medicine is the easiest to understand. It includes medical skills, pharmacology, and related minor arts, such as imbuing medicine with spiritual force. Healing arts and the like. This lineage was inherited by your Senior Uncle Chen. Fate and divination are closely linked. Reading a person’s destiny, their major fortune cycles, calculating the heavens and earth, and glimpsing heavenly secrets are all part of these two branches. Your Senior Uncle Li inherited those two. Physiognomy involves reading faces, bone structure, palm reading, facial features, and also geomancy for dwellings and burial sites. That is what your Senior Uncle Wang inherited.” My master slowly explained to me.

I felt it was all incredibly mysterious. Every aspect of these metaphysical arts fascinated me. I had not expected even medicine to be part of it.

“Medicine is part of it too, Master?” I could not help confirming again.

“Why would it not be?” he said excitedly. “Bian Que was one of our Daoist people. Just like Zhuangzi, he was taught by Chang Sangjun. The Huangdi Neijing is also a medical text from our Daoist metaphysical tradition. You could say that traditional Chinese medicine as a whole belongs to our lineage. Do you understand?”

Unfortunately, I was only ten years old, and I did not recognize any of the names he mentioned. His excitement was wasted on me, but I did not dare show it. I could only nod repeatedly with an expression of complete agreement, which satisfied Old Man Jiang.

Sigh, what could be done? With such an unreliable master, his disciple would naturally have to become especially sensible.

After this commotion, I finally remembered to ask about our own lineage. I said, “Master, then our branch is the Mountain lineage, right? Is it also very powerful?”

“Our lineage…” Old Man Jiang sighed. He was no longer joking. After a long pause, he said, “On the surface, our lineage has a very prestigious reputation. It is considered the head of the five metaphysical schools. The abilities of the other four branches all serve ours in one way or another. But in reality, those who can make a living in the outside world now are all from the other four branches. Our lineage has declined greatly. What people call feudal superstition mostly refers to us.”

“What happened to our lineage?” I asked. My heart also felt heavy along with his words, yet I still could not quite believe it. In my eyes, my master actually had real ability.

“What does the Mountain lineage pursue above all else? Becoming immortal. The medicine branch was developed to provide medicines for strengthening the body. Fate and divination were used to avoid disasters and gain fortune, and also to travel the world and earn money, because cultivation requires wealth. Especially the Mountain lineage itself is a bottomless pit. Rare herbs, ritual materials, everything costs money like water flowing out. The physiognomy branch is easier to understand. It is used to select disciples and feng shui sites for cultivation, which also costs money. Everything is ultimately for the Mountain lineage.” Old Man Jiang sighed again.

My mouth fell open. What exactly was I learning? I was learning how to become immortal? I had seen ghosts and spirits, but I had never seen immortals. My master had never even mentioned such things. I did not think I had any destiny for immortality. Was this not nonsense?

“As for becoming immortal…” Old Man Jiang sighed once more and continued, “Most Daoist health practices actually come from our Mountain lineage. Our secret arts are also the most numerous. Immortality, Dao, illusion, spirit, weapons, military arts. These all refer to the secret arts of our Mountain lineage. The methods of immortality cultivation, Dao techniques, illusion arts, spirit cultivation, martial skills, and military mastery all belong here. Going further, talisman techniques, formation suppression techniques, star invocation and borrowing power, hand seals, step patterns, sword cultivation, all of them belong to us. In short, the people who catch ghosts, exorcise demons, and subdue monsters in the mortal world are all from our Mountain lineage.”

Now I finally understood why our Mountain lineage was called feudal superstition. It really did all sound unreal. Becoming immortal, catching ghosts. If this was not superstition, what was?

And this Mountain lineage’s abilities were indeed inferior in practical use compared to the other four branches, and it was also a money sink. No wonder it was so miserable.

“The ultimate pursuit of Daoism is the completion of the Mountain lineage. Not to mention anything else, even becoming a human immortal would be enough. Unfortunately, how many such people appear in a thousand years?” he said, then looked at me with an almost childlike expectation. “Disciple, do you feel wronged following me?”

“I do not feel wronged. Catching ghosts and monsters sounds pretty impressive.” I quickly replied. It really did sound impressive. At least in my heart, I still felt a sense of superiority. Among the five metaphysical branches, ours was still the leader, right?

“Good, good…” Old Man Jiang nodded repeatedly in satisfaction, patting my head forcefully. The strength nearly gave me a concussion.

“Speaking of which, when I inherited the Mountain lineage back then… sigh…” He hesitated, his tone obscure. Heaven knows what he was thinking. All I understood was that this most mysterious Mountain lineage seemed to have been something highly contested among his senior brothers.

“From today onward, I will teach you the secret cultivation arts. Some methods of refining qi and forming internal elixirs will also be gradually passed on to you.”

“Secret cultivation arts?” I asked curiously.

“Yes. Do you not admire my abilities? Secret cultivation arts include drawing talismans, hand seals, all of that. Starting today, I will teach you.”

My heart filled with joy. After so many years of learning, I was finally going to learn the things I had always wanted to learn.