First Volume County Town Chapter 22 Upper Three Days

  The old man, surnamed Gu and named Yong, was a small tea servant in the brothel of Gaoyang County before liberation. Later, he was taken to the provincial capital by someone, where he had an unexpected encounter, learned some martial arts, and began his adventures outside. After more than a decade, he became a well-known Qingbang Red Gang member in the provincial capital. After liberation, gang members were suppressed by the government, Gu Yong spent several years in prison and was detained for several years in a cowshed, until the reform and opening-up period when he came back to life again.

  At this time, he was already sixty years old.

  He was of high birth and great power, after all, he was a person from the old Tang family, and at that time, famous figures on the provincial capital road would often shout "Uncle" when they saw him. Coupled with the old fox's clever tactics, in just a few years, he once again regained his prestige and firmly grasped one-third of the province's underworld business.

  These years, the old master has grown old and returned to his hometown of Gaoyang County to spend his later years. However, he still controls a large number of people in the provincial capital. Moreover, in his hometown of Gaoyang County, almost all the local thugs can be considered his disciples. The townspeople say that if Old Master stomps his foot, the small county town will shake three times.

  The old gentleman was originally a legendary figure in the county town. If one were to say that he had seen and experienced much, perhaps no one would dare compare with him.

  Yi Tian Xing looked at him with hope in his eyes, wanting to hear what he had to say about the mysterious Upper Three Days.

  "In Chinese history, which three families were most famous?"

  Yi Tian Xing smiled and replied faintly: "Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism."

  "Up three days, which is these three houses."

  Yi Tianxing quietly looked at Lao Ren's house and knew there was more to come. He said, "Please continue."

  The old man looked at him quietly and said, "You are not an ordinary person." After a while, he said again, "Extraordinary people do extraordinary things. There are many people like you in the world, and when they come together, they are given a unified name by the world, called the Upper Three Heavens!"

  Yi Tianxing's face was calm, but his heart was uncontrollably excited. Today, he finally learned from someone else that there were many people like him in the world. The feeling of loneliness and desolation that had plagued him for many years was swept away. He immediately wanted to ask how to find these people, but suddenly realized the old man's words were flawed, and furrowed his brow to ask: "What does this have to do with Confucianism, Buddhism, or Taoism?"

  "There are many kinds of abilities that are not ordinary, some are born with a true energy, while others are acquired through hard practice later in life. As for the latter, one naturally needs to have a master... This master is divided into the three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism." The old man sipped his tea and spoke slowly.

  "Everyone has innate abilities, but it's up to later development and practice. It's like a piece of red-hot iron just out of the furnace, which needs to be molded into shape using certain methods. Different schools have different approaches, such as water tempering or mold casting, each with its own uniqueness. In the Confucian tradition, from Mencius down to the present day, the transmission was cut off midway, and some years ago a professor claimed that 'nourishing one's vital energy' was actually qigong, which is nonsense. What I vaguely knew back then was that the Confucian school only retained one passage from Mencius: 'A feather cannot be lifted because it does not use its strength properly; a cartload of firewood is invisible because it does not shine brightly...'"

  Yi Tianxing suddenly heard that there were still people in this world who cultivated immortals, and even more unexpectedly, they secretly passed it down among Confucian scholars. He couldn't help but feel shocked, his mouth agape. But then he suddenly remembered the chapter on Mengzi's Qi Huan Jin Wen, and furrowed his brow, filled with doubt. He had memorized this passage like the back of his hand, but didn't think it contained any subtle or profound meaning related to cultivation.

  The old gentleman didn't know that this strange kid was secretly ridiculing his views, thinking he had been stunned by his own words. With a hint of pride, he continued to speak: "Qin Shi Huang burned books and buried Confucian scholars, so the Confucian school was cut off from then on. It wasn't until the Ming dynasty's Wang Yangming practiced qigong in the army that the Tóngchéng school continued his work, preserving the incense fire. Buddhism was transmitted from the Western Regions to the Central Plains, with countless believers and its own cultivation methods, which later became Chan (Zen) Buddhism. The Taoist practice of cultivating truth is another category. These three schools gathered in one place, and all three had disciples who could transcend worldly abilities, so they were called the Upper Three Heavens."

  Yi Tianxing listened more and more, and became increasingly skeptical. He furrowed his brow and said: "Wait a minute, I have some doubts about this."

  The old gentleman looked at him with some surprise and made a beckoning gesture.

  "Old Master, what you said about the past three days seems to be referring to future cultivation. But I must confess to you that my physical body has been like this since I was a baby, how do you explain it?"

  The old man suddenly became angry and said, "I don't know so much, but in the world, who can have a body as indestructible as yours? Besides practicing Zen in Buddhism, how else can it be explained?"

  Yi Tian's heart cooled down a bit, and he couldn't help but doubt the old fox's previous words. However, thinking that this old guy had no reason to set up an array and invite himself back home just to deceive him, he estimated that he still knew something. So, he continued to ask: "First, tell me, why are you so interested in my body? I believe you don't have any intention of selling me to the country's laboratory."

  ……

  ……

  The old man looked at his face and sighed after a long time: "You are very lonely, right? Actually, I am the same."

  After finishing this sentence, the old man stretched his hand straight to the wall beside him. The place where his fingers pointed was a meticulous landscape painting of an unknown artist.

  The picture depicts the scenery of Xizhimen outside Beijing during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. The Jade River is painted with clear and calm water, with dense trees on both banks, and lush foliage like a canopy. In one corner of the landscape painting, there is a copy of the inscription "Jiuyoutang Temple" written by Yuan Zongdao, one of the three Yuans from Gong'an.

  Yi Tianxing followed his finger and looked past, seeing the tiny characters on top that read: "Gao Liang Bridge water, from Xishan deep valley comes, passes through here into Yuhe River. White silk thousand strands, gentle breeze on the water's surface, like Luo brocade paper... When will you hang up your wise crown, become a guest under the six bridges? Is this mountain and water a sentimental barrier? On that day, they parted ways after each composing a poem in different rhymes."

  Yi Tian Xing didn't understand what the old man meant, and looked at him with inquiring eyes.

  The old man's fingers moved slightly, and his fingertips seemed to be emitting a faint chill.

  In an instant, Yi Tianxing suddenly felt that the light in the house dimmed for a moment, and the dust on the wall seemed to be blown out by some force, covering the entire landscape painting with a gray mist. The next moment, the light brightened again, and Yi Tianxing was shocked to discover that the painting had been cut into strips by some sharp object!

  Yitian suddenly turned his head. He quietly looked at the old man with a slightly yellow face and asked seriously, "Are you from Shangsan Tian?"