"Thank you! Senior Brother Fourteen! I'm fine! Let's hurry up! I'm a little hungry too. ”

After a moment of silence, Li Qingtong's crisp voice broke the brief silence.

"Yes, yes, yes, hurry up! Let's eat! People take food as the sky, old Zhong, I have been hungry for a long time!" the twelfth senior brother Zhong Qinghuo hurriedly shouted.

Everyone began to laugh again, turned back to the atrium of the "Ceres Palace", climbed the steps to the two-zhang high pedestal in front of the "Sanqing Palace", and entered the backyard from the side door next to it.

The backyard is about the same size as the atrium, but the layout is very different from the atrium in the front hall. The whole backyard is paved with bluestone, surrounded by a circle of corridors, all kinds of green trees are covered, the strange stone scenery layout is exquisite, coupled with the green tiles and red walls of the garden, there is garden weather everywhere. In the middle of the courtyard is a tall "Supreme Hall". There is a corridor in front of the hall that stretches horizontally, intersecting with the corridors on both sides, and visually divides the backyard into two gardens.

"Fifth Senior Brother, can you tell me more about this backyard allusion?" Li Qingtong said, curiosity rising again.

Liang Qingshan briefly introduced:

"This 'Supreme Hall' is the top of the double-eaves hall, with seven rooms wide and three rooms deep, which is the place where the masters meet, rest or practice the exercises. There is a single-eaves side hall on the east and west sides of the front garden, which is called 'Taoist Hall', which is the place where preaching and preaching the Dharma; there are also two side halls on the east and west sides of the back garden, which are called 'guest halls', which are the places where guests rest, temporarily stay, practice and study the Dharma. At the back of the back garden, there is a main hall similar to the "Supreme Hall", called "Xiyang Hall", which is the place where the masters live, live or temporarily live. There are also three or four arches on each side of the courtyard that lead to the outer courtyard. ”

The curious Li Qingtong walked into the first arch on the right and saw that inside was a long and narrow strip-shaped compound with a circular corridor, and a circle of smaller arches hung on the circular corridor, all of which were tightly closed. Li Yitong pushed open the first small arch and saw a small blue brick and red tile house with a door, one window, two ridges, and a small courtyard in front of the door.

"This 'Hui' shaped courtyard is where our disciples on the mountain live, and there are four beds in two rooms in each small courtyard, and four people live. Fifth Senior Brother Liang Qingshan's voice suddenly came from behind. It turned out that he had followed.

"There are sixteen arches in this 'Hui'-shaped compound, that is, there are sixteen small courtyards, which can accommodate sixty-four people. Li Qingtong counted and said casually.

Liang Qingshan received: "Exactly." ”

"Don't we just have a dozen senior brothers, and we need so many rooms?" Li Qingtong asked.

Liang Qingshan smiled: "Have you forgotten that when the two of us passed by the 'Four Great Squares', we saw those people who practiced the formation? They are all disciples of our Qingyang Sect, although they are substitute disciples and registered disciples, they also need food, clothing, shelter and transportation!"

"And how many of them are there?"

"Now it's more than 300 people, right? What you see when you go up the mountain is only half of them. ”

"So there are so many?"

"Hehe! That's a lot? At the most, we reached more than 500 people! But now the head of the sect attaches more importance to the cultivation of disciples, so it has been slightly reduced. ”

"They are all 'green' too?"

"They are ordinary lay disciples, who use lay names and do not take Taoist names. After cultivating for six years, most people who cannot be promoted to the second-order Taoist priest but pass the examination school will be awarded a Taoist crown and a jade huang of the first-order Taoist priest, and they will finish their studies and go down the mountain. ”

"First-Order Daoist, will it be useful when you go back?"

"Of course it's useful, we Dahua National Daoist and Confucian are at the same level, and in the secular world, first-order Taoist priests and Xiucai are at the same level. ”

"What should I do if I go up to the second order?"

"Those who are promoted to the second-order Taoist priest will continue to cultivate on the mountain, still for a period of six years, and those who cannot be promoted to the third-order Taoist priest but pass the examination will be awarded a Taoist crown and a jade ring of the second-order Taoist priest, and they will go down the mountain after graduation, which is equivalent to a person in Confucianism. ”

"What about those who have risen to the third order?"

"It is still a six-year period of continuous cultivation, and those who cannot be promoted to the fourth order at the expiration of the expiration but pass the examination will be awarded a Taoist crown and a jade bi of the third-order Taoist priest, and the name of the Tao or the name of the Tao will be given, and the name of the Qingyang School will be entered into the pedigree of the Qingyang School, and the name of 'Authentic Jade Material' will be awarded. After descending the mountain, it is equivalent to the Confucian Jinshi, and it is reused with the Jinshi in the court. I am a third-order Taoist priest of the Qingyang faction, many of them have been promoted one after another after entering the court, and their official qualities have become high-ranking pillars of the country. According to incomplete statistics, among the disciples of my Qingyang faction, there have been three prime ministers or Situ, five imperial historians or Sikong, seven Taiwei, Da Sima or generals, more than a dozen people in Jiuqing, and nearly 20 or 30 local state and county guards. As for Chaowai, because the cultivators pursue the way of immortality, and they are also people who have attained the Tao, they have a lot of Qimen spells, and their popularity is much better than that of Jinshi. ”

"So awesome?"

"Although our Qingyang Sect was founded relatively late, it has developed rapidly, but it has only been three hundred years, and it has been among the top three in the cultivation realm and martial arts. If you talk about the impact on the country and the world, and when it comes to the jade warriors of the Dahua Dynasty, it is almost the first worthy of the name. This is first of all due to the ancestor Qingyang Zhenren's deep understanding of the Tao Te Ching, and at the beginning of the founding of the school, he put forward the purpose of 'the eye of birth into the world, and the foundation of morality does not leave the home and country'. ”

"The third-order Taoist priests are so good, I don't know how good they will be when they have been promoted to the fourth order?" Li Qingtong asked in amazement. He didn't know much about what "born and entered the WTO", but he was shocked by the development of the disciples of the Qingyang Sect in the world.

"Those who have been promoted to the fourth order will not be able to do so, and a jade jue of the Qingyang Sect will be awarded, and a fourth-order Taoist Dao crown will be awarded. You can directly become a formal disciple, apprentice, enter the pedigree, and confer a name, just like we have now. Once you go down the mountain, you will be equivalent to the top three in the imperial examination in the court, and you will become a national teacher-level figure in a few years. But, among those who have ascended to the Fourth Order, very few of them are willing to enter the world and follow the world, and most of them directly stay on the mountain to continue their cultivation. ”

"Oh, then do I have the ability and strength of a fourth-order Taoist now?"

"Of course not!"

"Then why is the master willing to officially accept me as an apprentice?"

"I heard that it was because you suddenly suffered from a demonic disease and had a hidden illness that Master Uncle and Master Zun were repeatedly invited by Lingzun to accept you as an official disciple. ”

"So you pity me, hey!" he said, sighing softly and shaking his head helplessly.

"It's not all, is it? There must be some other reason. ”

"What other reasons could there be?"

"It may be that the masters have discovered that you may have some special potential, such as some 'Jade Qing Potential' that can cultivate the 'Fifth Order Jade Dragon'. I can't say it well. Because our Qingyang Sect has always paid more attention to potential, or innate qualifications, rather than your existing actual ability, in selecting and accepting apprentices. ”

"Yuqing potential, what is Yuqing potential?"

Li Qingtong muttered to himself, and he heard a voice outside:

"Fifth Senior Brother, Little Senior Brother, what are you two doing? We are all dying of hunger. ”

As soon as I heard it, it was Zhong Qinghuo's loud voice.

"Oh no, I just cared about explaining to you, and I forgot about lunch. Hurry up. ”

Li Qingtong felt that he was also hungry.