Ji Xiang’s spirit had cleared, but his eyes could not see, his mouth could not speak, and his ears could not hear.
A vast amount of memories from this frail body surged into Ji Xiang’s mind.
It was now the twenty-fifth year of Wanli.
Today was the eighteenth day of the sixth month.
This was the Ming Dynasty, but this Ming Dynasty had matters of gods and ghosts.
The Three Mountains held the orthodox Dharma, the common folk had their own teachings, the Ming court possessed imperial might, spirits hid in the mountains, and monsters gathered and roared.
At this moment, the coordinates of this body were within the Forbidden City, specifically in the Longde Hall, a hall built during the Jiajing era.
The former Emperor, Emperor Longqing, had renamed this grand hall Longde Hall, removed the statues of Zhenwu and Ruizong originally enshrined there, and replaced them with deities like the Three Pure Ones.
By the time of the current Emperor Wanli, the incense offerings in the palace halls had gradually diminished.
Ji Xiang obtained information from the memories. If no one were to move this body now, then before him should be the statues of the Three Pure Ones, and he was lying before the Daoist Ancestors of the Three Pure Ones, with three extinguished incense sticks in the censer.
Ji Xiang was currently a Daoist priest from Mount Wudang, but his body was not on Mount Wudang, but in the Forbidden City. Furthermore, this body was charred and burned to death, its clothes and other items naturally incinerated, leaving only some jade ornaments.
Apart from this charred corpse of a body, no other items in the hall bore any trace of burning.
Sharing the same name and surname was a common occurrence in transmigration.
When Ji Xiang transmigrated, he carried with him the blank divine tablet obtained from the Great Fuli Land, and this divine tablet was now within his inner landscape.
Inner landscape, referring to the internal image of the body observed during practice.
According to the preface to the "Huangting Neijing Jing" annotated by Liangqiu Zi: Inner refers to the heart; landscape refers to the image.
Simply put, it is the spiritual world; everyone has their own distinct spiritual world.
“I merely borrowed some of your incense offerings, and you seek such retribution?”
Ji Xiang felt extremely uncomfortable. Could this be considered being “banished to the mortal realm”?
Regarding other information, this young Daoist priest, while on Mount Wudang, had always performed his daily duties well. Not long ago, he was assigned the task of sweeping the great halls of the Imperial Palace, replacing the previous officiant of Longde Hall.
The young Daoist’s master was an extraordinary person, but he himself was very lazy on Mount Wudang. This assignment to the Imperial Palace was actually an exception.
Because Mount Wudang was different from other mountains. Among the “Three Sects, Nine Paths, and Twenty-Six Schools,” Mount Wudang, in a broad sense, did not belong to any particular level; they operated independently. Within the mountain, there were those of the Zhengyi sect, the Quanzhen sect, the Wudang Wulong sect, the Wudang Xuanwu sect, the Wudang Qingwei sect, and the Wudang Sanfeng sect…
Besides those who cultivated immortality, there were also those who practiced martial arts and those who lived in seclusion.
However, despite the many branches, they shared a characteristic: regardless of one’s affiliation, Zhenwu the Great Emperor was uniformly worshipped as the highest deity.
This time, when it came to rotating personnel at the Imperial Palace, many branches wished to participate. Since Emperor Wanli had not interacted with Mount Wudang for many years, and had elevated the status of the Longhu Mountain Daoist sect while also favoring Buddhism, Mount Wudang was extremely eager to showcase its abilities before the Emperor and regain trust. Thus, every branch wanted to secure this face-saving assignment, causing chaos on the mountain.
There were several Patriarchs on the mountain; some had lived in seclusion there since the late Yuan Dynasty, and many did not belong to any particular school but were simply recluses. Of course, for some unknown reason, there were no cultivators from before the Yuan Dynasty on the mountain.
The various schools requested the Patriarchs to make a selection, and the Patriarchs found themselves in a difficult position.
Then, this young Daoist priest’s master appeared. With a wave of his hand, he declared that everyone should stop arguing and let his disciple go.
According to the reasoning of this young Daoist’s “rotten-brained” master, a group of old Daoist priests spent their days trying to deceive others but failed to do so, and going there would just be a waste of resources. Therefore, it was better for none of them to go, and they should simply send a child to muddle through for a couple of years.
The Patriarchs had also grown tired of the petty squabbles among these juniors. In their view, cultivation and longevity were the important matters, and fighting tooth and nail for a position as a palace sweeper was utterly shameful and ruinous.
In the past, when Mount Wudang served as the imperial Daoist temple, its incense offerings were extremely abundant. Emperor Jiajing had undertaken extensive construction projects on Mount Wudang multiple times. However, decades later, the current Emperor Wanli had only bestowed a bound sutra upon Mount Wudang, with no further interaction with the mountain. He merely kept a Daoist priest from Mount Wudang in the Forbidden City as a mascot, responsible for sweeping Longde Hall.
It didn’t matter who went. Since everyone was so eager, then no one should go!
Thus, one of the Patriarchs designated this young Daoist priest, meaning the discussion was over. Since there was no strict regulation, it was decided that he would go. Sweeping the palace grounds for two years could also be considered gaining work experience.
And so, the youngest palace sweeping Daoist priest appeared.
After all, the so-called Zhenwu the Great Emperor was actually Emperor Yongle, Zhu Di, and even his statues were sculpted to resemble Emperor Yongle himself. While the statue of Zhenwu could be moved, the specialized responsibility of offering sacrifices at Wudang could not be abolished.
And usually, no one would come here; not even palace maids or eunuchs frequented the place. This was because Daoist priests adhered to the cultivation rules of abstaining from grains and absorbing qi. In this world where strange powers and spirits existed, Daoists truly possessed such abilities.
However, the peaceful days did not last long.
At that time, the young Daoist priest was performing his usual chanting and prayers. After completing his evening service, suddenly, three beams of light emerged from the censer of the Three Pure Ones and directly entered the young Daoist priest’s body. Subsequently, the young Daoist priest’s entire body became hot, and his internal organs were burned and destroyed within mere moments.
At that time, the young Daoist priest attempted to control the spontaneous combustion using his own fire-stopping techniques, but those flames were extremely peculiar. They were not normal flames but a curse.
The young Daoist priest had only performed his duties well within the sect; his magical power was not high. Thus, he was quickly burned to death. However, before dying, he recited a scripture capable of reviving the dead, hoping that his soul would remain intact by relying on the scripture. But unfortunately, his soul was too weak and vanished before he could finish reciting the scripture.
The life and death of a person are merely the gathering and dispersal of qi.
Reviewing his memories up to this point, Ji Xiang mused thoughtfully. It seemed that the Forbidden City was not peaceful either.
“This young Daoist priest had only recently arrived in the Forbidden City and had not interacted deeply with anyone. The Forbidden City is a forbidden zone for all Dharma. Except for Dharma masters approved by the Emperor to remain, there are no other cultivators. Only True Master Zhang of Longhu Mountain visits every couple of months.”
“There are no fellow Daoists holding grudges, no involvement in official politics, and no enmity with any of the Jinyiwei or other secret police. What was the motive of the person who cast the curse?”
Ji Xiang pondered for a moment. Regardless, his first priority was to bring himself “back to life.”
This charred body was incapable of allowing him to move in the world.
Therefore, with a slight movement of his thought, the blank divine tablet within his soul instantly flashed with majestic radiance.
Countless streams of incense and yellow qi surged out from this blank divine tablet, and this blank divine tablet also filled with a jade-white radiance within his inner landscape.
This incense and qi reached every inch of the charred body, connecting it, and under the effect of the yellow qi, this charred body began to move slowly.
These smells, this feeling, and the current scene, even though his eyes could not see, his nose and mouth could not smell, and his ears could not hear, he could still understand that he was no longer purely human.
“If I’m not human, so be it. Just let me get up first…”
At the same time, as Ji Xiang’s thoughts turned, some characters also flashed on the blank divine tablet, seemingly responding to Ji Xiang’s questions:
[Myriad People’s Incense: Those who consume qi are divine and immortal.]
These were “incense offerings.”
They were the myriad people’s incense offerings gathered through the prayers of all beings throughout the ages!
Subsequently, confirming that the incense and qi had filled the physical body, Ji Xiang searched through the young Daoist priest’s memories for that revival scripture. Upon knowing its text, he was quite astonished.
This was precisely the scripture he had heard when he was brought down to the mortal realm by Yuanshi Tianzun’s divine tablet.
Thus, using the myriad people’s incense as a guide, he began to silently recite this scripture in his heart.
“Long ago, in the Primordial Azure Heaven, a song of the Azure Firmament, the Great Fuli Land…”
That was the "Du Ren Jing" (Scripture for Saving Beings).