Inside the palace.

In a large room on the third floor, a young man with facial features somewhat similar to King Shanshan was holding a wooden tablet that had just been brought in by the guards and looking at it carefully.

This young man was probably around eighteen or nineteen years old, and his hair and beard also inherited the unique curls of King Shanshan.

He is Chamu, the second prince of Shanshan Kingdom, the prince who is least favored by King Shanshan.

King Shanshan had six princes in total.

The eldest prince "Jia Fei" is good at riding and shooting, so he became a disciple of the recently deceased General Xia Hafu and learned the art of war and martial arts. He is likely to become the backbone of the Shanshan Kingdom. So much so that just after General Xia Hafu passed away, Ji Fei had already obtained the skewer.

The military talisman of the mud city defenders.

The fourth prince "Jin Quanzhuo" is proficient in Buddhism, and he also worshiped the recently deceased Master Pushan as his teacher. Although he is only 16 years old, he is already able to teach Buddhist scriptures and interpretations to believers, and has a quite broad mass base in Janni City.

Now that Master Pushan is no longer around, he will most likely take over the Fumo Temple and become the most influential mage in Zanni City.

King Shanshan also had high hopes for these two princes.

People in Janni City generally believe that as long as nothing unexpected happens, the next King of Shanshan will be born from the two princes "Jia Fei" and "Jin Quanzhuo".

It is worth mentioning that Jin Quanzhuo's status as a Buddhist disciple does not affect his inheritance of the throne.

Because Hinayana Buddhism is different from Mahayana Buddhism, disciples of Hinayana Buddhism are allowed to get married and have children, and are allowed to eat meat, which is basically no different from ordinary people's lives.

And if Jin Quanzhuo can become the next King of Shanshan, with his status and influence, it will be easier to realize the political and religious governance of Shanshan Kingdom. In today's era, using such a governance method can achieve dual control of faith and law, which will undoubtedly change the political situation.

More reliable.

As for the remaining princes, they are much mediocre compared to these two, so there is no need to go into details one by one.

The only one worth mentioning is the second prince "Chamu".

He is an outlier among the royal family.

He did not believe in "Theravada Buddhism", the state religion of Shanshan Kingdom, and slapped King Shanshan in the face.

They do not believe in the "Zoroastrianism" which has a relatively large mass base in Shanshan, but they believe in the "Taoism" which only began to flourish and develop in the Central Plains in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

However, the "Taoism" that Chamu believed in was not the "Taoism of Taiping" founded by Zhang Jiao and the "Tao of Five Pecks of Rice" founded by Zhang Daoling in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

He only borrowed some teachings from these two sects, taking Laozi's Taoist orthodoxy "Tao Te Ching" as the core, and then taking the "Huang-Lao sect", the most powerful of the many sects in the late Warring States period, as a precedent, and selectively believed in Taoist ideas in

Content that seemed to him of extraordinary significance.

Therefore, Chamu believes that what he believes in is only the most orthodox and primitive "Taoism", not some messy sect.

In his eyes, "Taoism" should not be divided into sects.

As the saying goes: "Taoism makes people's minds focused, moves and integrates the invisible, and supports all things. It is a technique. Due to the great harmony of yin and yang, it adopts the goodness of Confucianism and Mohism, summarizes the essence of the law, moves with the times, and responds to changes in things.

Establishing customs and doing things, everything is appropriate, it means making an appointment and it is easy to operate, doing less and doing more.

Taoist Wuwei, also known as Wuwei, is actually easy to practice, but its words are difficult to understand. Its technique is based on nothingness and uses the following. It has no form and no permanent shape, so it can understand the emotions of all things. If you don't take things first, you won't do them.

He is the queen of things, so he can be the master of all things.”

The Taoist principle of doing nothing, or doing nothing, is actually easy to practice but difficult to understand.

"Tao" is the emotion of all things and is also the master of all things.

The "Tao" was created by nature, and humans are just a link in the "Tao". They are just turtles in a urn and frogs in the well. Who are they qualified to classify "Tao" differently?

Therefore, in his opinion, the so-called factions are just the vain actions of mediocre people in the world and will only make heaven laugh.

If Wu Liang were taught what Cha Mu had in mind, he would immediately think of a later saying that has the same purpose as his idea: "When humans think, God laughs."

It seems to mean the same thing...

And the reason why Chamu has an indissoluble bond with "Taoism" is.

Let's start with the "Taiping Dao" founded by Zhang Jiao. At that time, the Yellow Turban Army spread throughout the Central Plains, so that a small number of "Taiping Dao" believers appeared among the merchants traveling to and from Shanshan Kingdom. These believers were doing business here while doing business.

He did not forget to preach, and even planned to build a Taoist temple in Janni City.

Shanshan is a place of religious freedom. Even if Theravada Buddhism is made the state religion, it never interferes with the missionary matters of other sects.

It was at this time that Chamu, who was just in his early tenth year, came into contact with Taoism.

He saw "Taiping Dao" believers giving porridge and preaching in the city, and also saw "Taiping Dao" believers using "talisman water" and "mantras" to treat people's illnesses. He even wrote down the catchy slogan "Heaven"

He is dead, Huang Tian should stand!"

Later, the Central Plains really became a mess, and Shanshan Kingdom easily achieved independence and escaped from the control of the Han Dynasty.

Since then, Chamu has developed a strong interest in "Taoism".

As a high-ranking prince, he can make requests to merchants traveling to and from the Central Plains, asking them to bring him books related to "Taoism", to understand the knowledge related to "Tao" in the Central Plains from ancient times to the present, and to study the truth contained in them.

So over time, such a strange prince appeared in the royal family:

His room was covered with yellow talisman paper bought from Zhongyuan at a great price. There were all kinds of strange symbols drawn on the talisman paper that no one could understand.

When his mother was ill, he did not immediately ask others to find a doctor for treatment. Instead, he drew a ghost talisman himself, burned it, mixed the ashes into water and gave it to his mother, saying it could cure her illness.

As a result, the mother not only did not recover, but started to suffer from vomiting and diarrhea.

In the end, King Shanshan learned about this matter and when he knelt down and reprimanded him severely, he actually kept mumbling something in his mouth, saying that maybe he had not understood the true essence of Taoism, and that maybe the queen mother had no Taoism in her heart, so this was the result.

.

Later, he discovered that Taoism has a Taoist philosophy called "eating breath and breaking up grains." As the saying goes: "Those who eat meat are brave and strong, those who eat grains are wise and skillful, those who eat breath are gods and live long, and those who do not eat are immortal and immortal."

In order to verify the feasibility of this kind of cultivation, Chamu decided to try it himself.

So he asked the guards to lock him in the room, and he really started to go on a hunger strike without water, and only practiced the breath-taking method that he had learned.

After all, Taoism has an ultimate theory that "Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things." All things in the world are interconnected. Qi can give birth to all things in the world, not to mention the grains and meat that people eat, so they live by eating Qi.

Theoretically it should be possible.

After being starved like this for three days, Chamu could be considered a determined and perseverant person. He was so hungry that he lay on the ground unable to move, and still refused to ask for help.

In the end, Chamu's mother discovered that she had not seen her son for several days, and asked the guards why. She had to order someone to drag Chamu out of the room, and then force-fed him a bunch of food, waiting for him to eat.

When I was full and felt like I could hold on, I arranged a meal of love from the "Seven Wolves".

There are countless similar things.

Chamu, however, remained unrepentant and blamed his own "understanding" for the failure.

Since then, he has become more persistent in asking merchants from the Central Plains to collect a few words about "Taoism" for him, and has become more persistent in pursuing the truth of "Tao" and conducting all attempts related to "Tao".

Over time, he became an outlier in Shanshan City.

Seeing this, his mother was anxious and asked Master Pushan many times to speak and guide him. Not only could he not change his mind, but the son sometimes even used his "wrong theories" to refute Master Pushan to the point of being speechless.

He said, trembling all over.

King Shanshan was extremely disappointed with him.

The other princes also looked down upon him.

Even the people in the city would treat him as a joke in private.

Chamu didn't care.

As the saying goes, "Man follows the earth, the earth follows heaven, heaven follows Tao, and Tao follows nature." Everything in the world should be "natural", and the same is true for people. Since he has chosen this path, he should accept the "natural" changes calmly.

, "Tao heart" can only be seen by "doing things without doing anything and teaching without words".

Many years passed in such a flash.

The other princes were all married and had children, and were handling some political affairs under the instruction of King Shanshan. Only Chamu, who was nearly twenty years old, was still a bachelor. He hid in his room all day studying books related to "Tao" and drawing those books.

A mess of spells, trying Taoist methods that only appear in fragments in books.

It wasn't that his mother had not arranged a marriage for him, but Cha Mu thought that he had not yet understood the "art of the house" in Taoism, could not "be mastered in the brain", and was not worthy of "the joy of husband and wife".

Sternly refused.

After this incident.

Even his mother felt that Chamu was "devastated" and she no longer asked for this son. She just wanted him to spend the rest of his life carefree...

…

After reading the contents on the wooden tablet, Chamu rolled up the wooden tablet again and placed it in the niche.

There are more than ten volumes of the same wooden tablets stored in the niche, which record the list of books that Wu Liang and others have read in the Jingui Pavilion in the past half month, as well as their every word and deed.

Leaning on the bed with his arms, Chamu looked puzzled and muttered to himself: "Strange, the mysterious power that these Han people used to kill General Xia Hafu and Master Pushan must be related to Taoism.

Pre-Qin alchemy books have recorded incidents of alchemy furnaces collapsing and injuring people. The two seemed to have the same purpose, but they stayed in the Golden Chamber Pavilion for half a month, and there was nothing strange about the books they read.

There is no trace of an accomplished person in their words or deeds. Are they clueless, or am I wrong?"

"I really want to get the two bronze jars from my father's body and study them carefully. Perhaps only in this way can we confirm the identity of these Han people as 'fellow Taoists'..."

"It's a pity that my father will definitely not agree. If he is not careful, he will die without a complete body like General Xia Hafu and Master Pushan."

"Now, I'm afraid there is only one way..."

"..."
To be continued...