Chapter 246: Called Chen Ancestor In The Future! Going To Do Something Big?
After Chen Han returned to his own courtyard, he decisively went into the building and began searching in the place where the books were stored.
The Chen Clan’s collection was very mixed. He had previously flipped through some books about feng shui, but he had never believed in it at all. After all, he had studied so much without seeing any mysterious effects.
Though there is that joke: a university teacher always talks science in class, believes in science, harshly denounces feng shui as leftover dregs, yet when he buys a house after leaving campus, he invites a feng shui master to inspect it, and his own student happens to see it.
Chen Han entered the place where the books were kept and searched for a long time, finally finding four books about feng shui.
They were: 《Burial Book》, 《Qi Differentiation》, 《Feng Shui Spirit Manifesting Mirror》, and 《Feng Shui Fundamental Outline》.
Then he tried taking out the Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone from the game warehouse to see whether his idea was feasible.
Who would have thought that as soon as he took out the Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone, a game system prompt appeared.
【Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone has detected basic feng shui information, performing real analysis…】
【Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone has detected useless feng shui information…】
【Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone has detected incomplete feng shui information…】
【Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone has detected a segment of usable feng shui information… “Qi disperses with the wind, is halted by water, thus people gather it so it does not scatter, guide it so that it has points of rest…”】
【…】
【…】
…
The continuous game prompts appearing in his mind made Chen Han look at the Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone in surprise.
He saw that the entire stone surface was very calm.
On closer inspection, it seemed there was some kind of fluid flowing inside the stone, and within it, characters and the like were condensing.
Truly miraculous.
However, from these prompts that continued to appear, he could tell why feng shui had been lost in the present era, and why what he had learned before had been useless.
In the Chen Clan’s collection of feng shui books, the contents were either useless feng shui information, or incomplete information. In fact, in one 《Burial Book》, only that one segment was useful.
So it was no wonder that modern feng shui had been lost.
Although feng shui had nothing to do with cultivation and was only knowledge summarized by the ancients through the study of geography and terrain, much of it was actually not that different from what modern geography experts do.
But it was obvious that the experience and knowledge accumulated by the ancients over thousands of years was far more awesome than that of modern geography experts who only study their specialty for a few years.
The wisdom of the ancients was in many cases truly not something modern people could compare to. So many people think that after transmigrating they could toy with the ancients; that idea is actually very ignorant.
Now that the relevant knowledge of feng shui had been lost to such an extent, and much of what remained was useless, even the most powerful methods could no longer be applied.
As for why one feng shui book contained so much useless content, that was not strange either. There would always be people who thought they were awesome and added their own views into these books. Or when books were incomplete, there would always be self-satisfied people trying to “fill in the gaps”.
They did not care whether it was right or wrong; they only cared what status, influence, and benefit they could gain from doing it.
If this is hard to understand, just think: how much of what children are learning in textbooks now is the same as what the post-90s and post-80s learned?
For the same word, many post-80s and post-90s already cannot understand its current usage.
…
In the past, Yue Fei was a national hero of loyal devotion, but now “Full River Red” by Yue Fei is no longer in textbooks, and even his title of national hero is questioned, with some even calling him a sinner who hindered national integration.
Many things that ordinary people find hard to understand are in fact decided by those holding the pen of power.
And this has taken only just over ten years.
If it were changed to 100 years, 1000 years, 2000 years, and through so many dynastic changes and so many wars in ancient times, how much of the original content could be preserved?
It would not be strange if only one tenth or even one hundredth remained.
When the Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone finished analyzing all four feng shui books, the usable content was actually less than 15%. That is to say, 85% of the contents in these four books were wrong or useless.
It would be strange if anyone could learn feng shui properly from such books.
【Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone has insufficient collected data; currently unable to provide complete geography and terrain feng shui data. Please continue collecting feng shui data…】
Seeing this final prompt, Chen Han turned his gaze toward Chen Daoist Priest and the others.
The Chen Clan had only these four feng shui books. Even if they went out to purchase those available for sale on the market, the final result would still likely be that very little was useful.
By contrast, in the Daoist sects and various Daoist temples, especially those in renowned scenic mountains, they would definitely have many books on feng shui, including collections not available outside.
Letting the Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone collect from those books would certainly be more effective.
With that in mind, he stood up, put the Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone back into the game warehouse, and then headed to the Heavenly Lord of Demon Subjugation Side Hall where the Dao discussion was held.
At this time, the cloud mist produced by the Cloud Barrier Pill of the 1000-meter range had long since dissipated, and the Heavenly Lord of Demon Subjugation Hall had also returned to normal.
When he entered the side hall for the discussion, Chen Daoist Priest and the others all turned to look at him in unison, their eyes carrying a special sense of expectation.
Because they had just been discussing something: their Daoist temples had already confirmed the existence of geography and terrain, and that reciting the 《Ancient Quiet Heart Art》 in the remaining locations was effective.
So within their Daoist temples they had their own chat groups, talking about whether there was any method to make use of their own geography and terrain, or to repair existing feng shui formations.
Wudang was not the only one with this idea.
But in reading the feng shui books, they had gained nothing.
And now the Chen Clan actually had a complete feng shui formation and even understood this matter. Did that mean they had a different level of achievement in feng shui?
After Chen Han sat down, he again began brewing Premium Thunder Bamboo Spirit Tea and had his junior sister and uncle pour for the Daoist priests.
He also noticed the special look in the eyes of Chen Daoist Priest and the others, so he smiled and asked, “Do you Daoist priests have any further questions regarding the 《Ancient Quiet Heart Art》?”
Hearing this, Chen Daoist Priest immediately said, “Chen Family Head, actually what we are questioning is not the 《Ancient Quiet Heart Art》, but matters related to feng shui. May we consult you about feng shui, and can we ask whether you could help us repair Wudang’s Thunder Fire Refining Golden Summit?”
These words made the other Daoist priests also look at Chen Han.
If Wudang’s Thunder Fire Refining Golden Summit could be restored, that would mean the feng shui formations once possessed by their own temples might also be restorable.
Even if not completely, restoring whatever part possible would still be something.
Hearing this, Chen Han was delighted. He had been thinking about how to start the topic of feng shui, then persuade these Daoist priests to bring over their feng shui collections. And now Chen Daoist Priest had delivered the opportunity himself.
So he hurriedly shook his head and said, “Daoist Priest Chen, you may be asking the wrong person about feng shui. I do not know feng shui, and no one in the Chen Clan knows it. We too are under the protection of our ancestors, let alone capable of helping Wudang repair its feng shui formations.”
“How can this be?” Chen Daoist Priest was clearly a bit disappointed. He had thought the Chen Family Head would have some inheritance and some methods.
Chen Han then said, “Actually, our Chen Clan only has four books related to feng shui, which your temples likely all have as well. However, I discovered that the useful content in these four feng shui books is very limited. Many parts should be useless, even wrong, so now no matter how we study these feng shui books, it is pointless.”
These words did catch the attention of Chen Daoist Priest and the others.
Because after the senior brothers and sect leaders in their palace temples confirmed the geography and terrain and the matter of the 《Ancient Quiet Heart Art》, they went to consult the feng shui collections at once and basically gained nothing.
At first they had not considered this issue. Since those collections had been passed down by their ancestors, they only thought the problem was in themselves, that they had not mastered them.
Now hearing the Chen Family Head say this, if much of it was useless or wrong, then with such mixed content, how could anyone possibly learn it?
If that was the case, did it not mean the feng shui collections they had gathered were actually just stacks of waste paper with words printed on them?
Trying to find from those books methods for utilizing geography and terrain, or even repairing feng shui formations, would be almost impossible.
If that was true, it was indeed a depressing matter.
A Daoist priest could not help asking, “Chen Family Head, what is the basis for this judgment?”
Chen Han had come here knowing that these Daoist priests would ask such questions. If it had been before, without the Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone, he truly would not have had an answer.
But now it was different. The Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone had analyzed the four feng shui books of the Chen Clan and extracted some useful parts. That gave him a basis to talk, supported by reality.
So he explained, “When our Chen Clan first discovered the feng shui formation, I also studied the four feng shui books of the Chen Clan. After researching for a period, I had no results at all and no way to even begin.”
“Later I watched a science program in which an expert professor said that so-called feng shui is actually science, a shallow use of geographical scientific knowledge.”
“But his remarks were immediately rendered indefensible when an old man who understood metaphysics asked him just a couple of questions. He could only ramble nonsense.”
“So at that time I wondered if this professor might actually be somewhat right, that feng shui is in fact the ancients’ science.”
“However, he was wrong on one point. Feng shui is not a shallow use of geographical science; instead, modern geographical science is only a shallow use of feng shui.”
“He mixed up the primary and the secondary. The more advanced system is feng shui. Modern geographical science may use instruments and the like to do many things, but its use of geography and terrain is still at the shallowest stage.”
“Later I used this as a starting point for research and really obtained some confirmatory findings. For example, in the 《Feng Shui Fundamental Outline》, I saw a passage about ‘concealing qi and gathering wind’: qi disperses with the wind… next best is to hide from the wind… avoid concave wind hollows… extinction of descendants… where qi accumulates, it is warm like a sealed room…”
What Chen Han recited was precisely the useful passage identified by the Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone.
As he spoke, Chen Daoist Priest and the others had already started recording video and sending it to the high-level groups in their own temples. Perhaps what this Chen Family Head was saying would cause a great sensation in the Daoist sect.
After speaking this feng shui knowledge, Chen Han continued, “Modern architecture also deliberately uses the geographical environment along with entryways, employing a ‘Z-shaped circulation line’ to slow airflow speed. This scientific method can also reduce indoor temperature differentials. This approach is almost identical to what feng shui describes in ‘where qi accumulates, it is warm like a sealed room’.”
“So, can we perhaps use such methods to first verify which feng shui knowledge we can be sure is effective, then use that as a foundation to study more profound feng shui knowledge?”
“However, we do not yet know how much of the Daoist sects’ feng shui classics are usable and how much is wrong. If we could gather all the Daoist feng shui books together and analyze them one by one, we might gain unexpected results.”
“We might even compile a new feng shui book that is actually useful.”
Chen Han took the opportunity to lay out his goal. With the Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone in hand, he believed there would definitely be unexpected gains. Now he just had to wait for them to report back and send all the feng shui collections over.
Chen Daoist Priest and the others were now staring in shock at this Chen Family Head before them. His proposal was too astonishing.
Current feng shui was basically on the verge of being lost. If his explanation was confirmed, it would mean much of the feng shui content in the Daoist sects’ books was useless or wrong.
If they then reanalyzed and reorganized everything and produced a truly useful feng shui book, and if they could even restore the feng shui formations based on geography and terrain in Daoist temples across the land,
that would usher in a new era for the Daoist sects.
In a few decades or a hundred years, what would future generations call this Chen Family Head?
Daoist Ancestor Chen?
If they could participate, even if only by having their name signed somewhere in that new feng shui book, their names would be recorded in the history of the Daoist sects.
While shocked, Chen Daoist Priest and the others did not forget to send what Chen Family Head had just said into their palace temple group. The final decision on this was not theirs to make.
At Wudang’s Golden Summit.
The sect leader once again came here with a few senior and junior brothers. In fact, they were basically spending all their time here, trying to study how to restore the Thunder Fire Refining Golden Summit.
Beside them was a Daoist priest very skilled at drawing. Since they could not make sense of the feng shui books, they planned to first draw out all the surrounding geographical features in detail, then compare them to old distribution maps to see if they could discover anything.
Standing at a high point, the sect leader frowned as he looked at the peaks around him. “Our junior brother should have started another Dao discussion at the Chen Clan by now. I wonder if they can get any useful information about feng shui there.”
A Daoist priest suddenly said, “There is a new video from Junior Brother Chen in the group. The Chen Family Head is talking about feng shui-related matters.”
The sect leader did not hesitate. He hurriedly took out his mobile phone and opened the video in the group and heard the voice of the Chen Family Head:
“When our Chen Clan first discovered the feng shui formation… later I watched a science program… we might even compile a new feng shui book that is actually useful!”
Hearing this, the sect leader and several Daoist priests all showed expressions of shock.
Truly, even though they had gained nothing from their attempt to relearn those feng shui books, they had never doubted that the books passed down by their sages might actually be useless.
They had only dared to think that they themselves had not studied them properly, had not entered the door.
Now this Chen Family Head had drawn such a conclusion, and the key was that his reasoning was solid and, most importantly, true. If so, then no matter how they continued to study feng shui on their own, it would be useless.
Perhaps only the method proposed by the Chen Family Head could work.
Not only Wudang but other parts of the Daoist sects also received the news right away. For example, at Longhu Mountain, after the Celestial Master and several mages finished watching, they were greatly shaken.
Their Daoist sect’s inheritance was long, but that also meant that sometimes their thinking was very conservative. They did not dare to make the sort of challenge that Chen Family Head had.
Perhaps because of this, they had not discovered what he had, while he had reached this conclusion.
The situation was simple now. Either they harbored petty thoughts, worried that their own collections might contain real secrets that others would learn, and so refused the Chen Family Head’s proposal.
Of course, it was also possible that others’ collections contained real material while their own did not, which would be awkward.
If it were some other sect, such pettiness might indeed arise.
But this was the Daoist sect.
The Celestial Master and several mages saw it clearly: even if there was real knowledge in feng shui, they could not understand it. Keeping it in their collection served no purpose.
If they took it out and studied it together with the rest of the Daoist sects, they might produce something useful, which would benefit everyone.
The key point was, if feng shui could truly be utilized, and the geography and terrain of each Daoist temple could be brought into play and their feng shui formations restored, how greatly would that boost the prestige of the Daoist sects?
And how would the other side respond then?
Continue to secretly imitate? They would still need the ability to learn it.
Thinking this through, the Celestial Master said, “Reply to the Chen Family Head and say that we at Longhu Mountain are willing to send our feng shui collections to the Chen Clan and join forces with the Daoist sects to study them.”
After saying this, he sighed. “I truly would like to participate in person, but there are too many affairs at Longhu Mountain.”
This made the eyes of several mages light up. The Celestial Master could not leave because of his status, but they were different. This was a chance to personally participate in compiling a miraculous Daoist book.
They immediately notified the Chen Clan.
At the Chen Clan, the Daoist priest from Longhu Mountain, having received his orders, was just about to express his stance when the Wudang Daoist priest, Chen Daoist Priest, immediately stood up and said, “Chen Family Head, our Wudang side has already decided to send all of our feng shui collections to the Chen Clan so we may work together on this grand undertaking!”
“Chen Family Head, my senior brothers also say the same,” added Daoist Priest Xuan Shi.
Moments later, the Daoist priests from all the other places present also expressed their positions one after another. Their faces showed excitement, filled with expectation for the feat to come.
Seeing this, Chen Han smiled. Was this not half his goal already achieved?
Without hesitation, he instructed Xiao Yu, “Junior sister, doesn’t the Chen Clan still have some vacant detached courtyards? Arrange them all for the Daoist priests to stay in. For the coming period, the detached courtyards will not be open to outsiders.”
“Alright, senior brother.” Xiao Yu’s face was full of excitement. Clearly, she also understood that what her senior brother and these Daoist priests were about to do might cause a sensation across the entire Daoist sect.
While Xiao Yu was arranging things, she naturally did not forget to coordinate and notify Chen Kai at the county level. Since the Daoist priests would now be staying at the Chen Clan, there was no need for the county side to continue arranging accommodations.
When Chen Kai received Xiao Yu’s call, he was in the middle of reporting on the ancient city area’s situation to Chu Ping. Because of the online popularity and the Daoist priests living in the ancient city area, videos about the Linhe County Ancient City Area were being uploaded online every day and gaining traction.
This had absolutely given the Linhe County Ancient City Area plenty of traffic. With the area itself being full of ancient buildings and very well restored and constructed, it had attracted many tourists.
Many visitors to the Chen Clan would also buy tickets to the ancient city area. Many daily activities of people in Linhe County were beginning to shift toward the ancient city area, making it extremely lively.
It could be said to be very successful.
There was one more thing Chu Ping had not mentioned: there was a large tourism subsidy coming from Qingmin City. He knew very well what it was really about; most of that money would have to be channeled to support the Chen Clan.
After all, this was due to a greeting from that big shot Zheng.
Everyone knew the truth in their hearts, but on the surface, the procedures surely followed the proper processes, with clear grounds, all legal and compliant.
Even if someone came to investigate, they would not find any violation.
Just ask whether Linhe County’s tourism development had produced results. Ask whether the Chen Clan was the best performer in Linhe County’s tourism push.
As for why they were giving so much extra support?
Because they were bullish on it. Everyone was bullish. Any problem?
Coincidentally, the back mountain donated by Director Liu to the Chen Clan had not yet been developed. When this money came down, it could be used to support the Chen Clan in developing projects in that back mountain.
Seeing that after answering the phone Chen Kai’s expression became strange, Chu Ping asked in puzzlement, “What happened? Just one call and you look like that?”
Chen Kai replied in confusion, “They called from the Chen Clan to say those Daoist priests will instead be moving into the Chen Clan, to make it easier for subsequent Dao discussions. Looks like those Daoist priests plan to stay at the Chen Clan for quite some time.”
Chu Ping froze when he heard this. According to the original reception plan, those Daoist priests should have started returning to their respective temples over the next two days. Why were they suddenly all moving into the Chen Clan?
He did not know why, but he suddenly had a feeling that the Chen Family Head and those Daoist priests were about to do something big.
