Chapter 14: Great Honor

  "We've arrived at the Imperial Capital!" The coachmen passed the word from one to another.

  Nan Yue Lan looked out of the car window, and the towering city walls seemed to be built on the edge of the earth, with dust and smoke making the earthen city appear illusory. At noon, the sunlight was shining brightly in the sky, and the city tower above seemed to be paved with something that made it look like a thick layer of gold, dazzling to the eyes. No wonder they called it Warm City.

  After a month's journey, she knew quite a bit about her own time and space.

  Looking at the map, it is a large continent facing south to the sea. Outside the continent, only a few unfamiliar country names are marked. The continent is roughly half of the dynasty she belongs to, called the Great Glory Dynasty, similar to the unified central and southern dynasties. The tectonic changes are clearly different, with only Qin and Han having the same name in ancient times. After the Han Dynasty, there were wars for half a century, and history diverged. However, Confucianism and Taoism of Laozi and Zhuangzi are also discussed. Commerce and industry did not reach the prosperity of the Northern and Southern Dynasties and Sui and Tang, architecture was still in the stage of earth buildings, rough bricks, wood structures, and flat houses. Officials were already tired of building high platforms and grand halls, while the south quietly began to build exquisite gardens, just entering a period of breakthrough and change.

  However, a big difference between the two dynasties is that Taoism flourished and Xuanxue was prosperous. The Book of Changes was revered as a national book, and those who were more proficient in it had higher status. Legends of immortals were circulating everywhere, and divination and fortune-telling were as common as restaurants and taverns. People would often seek advice on these matters, but not just anyone could engage in this profession.

  Based on the study of I Ching, several major schools were divided, and only those who followed them and became successful had the qualification to start their own business. The requirements for becoming a master were even higher. However, the talents produced by the three major schools far from met the demand of the folk market, so there were still many self-taught people who did not obtain licenses from the government to practice, but instead cultivated their skills as a hobby. If they became skilled in divination, their reputation would naturally spread and they would be sought after by people.

  Outside of the Xuanxue, due to the reverence for yin-yang and the Five Elements, as well as the natural way of heaven and earth, there was also a certain degree of pursuit of the divination techniques, Gu technique, and heart techniques of the three foreign tribes outside of the Central Plains, namely Donghai, Xiyu, and Beidi. For example, the Wu family were direct descendants of the great shamans of Donghai.

  When Nan Yue first came into contact with these things, she thought she had crossed over to a world of immortal cultivation and could communicate with spirits. As she delved deeper into the bustling city, she discovered that it had nothing to do with immortal cultivation at all. It was just that a very small number of people made others believe they had the ability to predict the future and avoid disasters, causing many people to flock to them and be treated with great respect, becoming a middle to upper-class profession, mainly serving the upper class.

  Those abilities are like a sixth sense beyond the five senses, neither can summon the wind and rain, nor can they live forever and ascend to immortality. Outsiders cannot see or touch them, and they themselves rely solely on a kind of super-intuition, uniformly referred to as "Tian Neng". Adding to this is an understanding of the I Ching, then divining the accuracy of predictions, observing the outcome of applying the technique to change good or bad fortune, praying to heaven to influence natural forces, and medical techniques to see if they can cure diseases. The highest among them is the Grand National Master, who observes the celestial phenomena of the sun, moon, and stars to predict the fate of the imperial court and the ability to turn bad luck into good fortune.

  Whether such abilities exist or not, she was quite skeptical. Among the fortune tellers on the streets, nine out of ten were charlatans, and only one had good luck. However, even if fortune telling wasn't accurate, people could still accept it and go about their daily lives because they deeply believed that true masters were the highest members of each sect, and these people wouldn't bother with ordinary folk. Great masters possessed great talents, using such talents was against heaven's will, and would invite backlash, so naturally they wouldn't easily take action. Over the past three hundred years of the Da Rong dynasty, those with great talents had become increasingly rare, a natural correction to the forces that defied nature.

  After absorbing this information, she thought that Taoist divination was a powerful religious belief in this time and space, like Buddhism and Christianity, which were deeply rooted in people's hearts. Before doing anything, they had to calculate and divine, and those who could skillfully and proficiently use divination techniques became the existence that calmed people's minds. In fact, it was just an ordinary ancient dynasty, where Taoist priests replaced Buddhist monks, and divination replaced chanting sutras. The West had the Roman Curia, Luoyang had the White Horse Temple, and here there was the Mingyue Hall, all of which were sacred if believed in. The Book of Changes surpassed the Four Books and Five Classics, becoming the most profound academic pursuit for scholars, and above that was the heavenly endowment, dividing them into those who entered politics and those who followed the Tao, contributing to the emperor while secretly competing for their own interests.

  The royal family of Hwang has ruled this land for three hundred years. With the Southern Moon Grand Master at its head, it seems that their position is unshakeable, but the contradictions with the high-ranking officials in the imperial court have reached a boiling point. As a result, each faction attaches great importance to the successors with innate abilities and searches for them everywhere, competing fiercely for young talents. Those like Southern Moon Lan Sheng, who still show no signs of ability at the age of twenty, are considered incompetent, even with strong bloodline support, and have no status within their family, being ridiculed by peers and younger generations alike. Their fate is worse than that of ordinary people; from the moment they are confirmed to be unable, they are destined to be sacrificed by their family.

  Nan Yue Lan Sheng only knew that Wu Mei almost ignored her at this moment, but she didn't know that inside the Jin Bian City Building, those family members who shared the same bloodline thought she was less useful than a good horse. However, they also didn't know that this Nan Yue Lan Sheng was not the same as the previous one.

  Nan Yue Lan was lost in thought, staring at the scenery outside the window, when she suddenly heard someone calling her to get off the bus. She snapped back to reality and got off the bus, only to be greeted by Nan Yue Ping's gloomy face, thinking to herself that it must be tiring to always have a sullen expression.

  How can Nan Yueping not be tired? All the way here, she almost made Wu Mei dizzy. Although she is a concubine's daughter, she learns quickly and has a good understanding, and everyone in the family loves her. She is more favored than Jin Wei, who is cold and arrogant, and Yu Rui, who is introverted and doesn't like to socialize. Not only did she win over her father, but also gained her mother's sympathy. Moreover, she believes that before the age of seventeen, she will definitely show off her talents, after all, her intelligence and cleverness are already evident.

  Who would have thought that Mrs. Mei, who had been driven out for over a decade, not only followed back but also took charge everywhere, wanting to take the water route and taking it, thinking she was in a hurry to rush on her journey, but instead touring the mountains and rivers, turning a 20-day trip into one that lasted over a month. When told that Madame is ill, such dawdling and sightseeing are not good, but she wouldn't admit to sightseeing, saying instead that she's choosing auspicious days and routes to travel.

  Nan Yueping walked towards Wu Mei in the Lu Ren Pavilion, humming to herself that when she didn't know Wu's family, it was just some inexplicable divination technique, more like pretending to be a ghost. The straw men and wooden puppets were extremely taboo in the palace, and couldn't be mentioned in polite society. To put it nicely, it was the great sorcerer of Donghai communicating with spirits, but to put it bluntly, it was just heresy.

  She sounded unhappy, "Why isn't Aunt Mei leaving again? We're almost at the entrance of our home, do you want Father to come out and welcome us personally?" Since a message had already been sent back on the road, Mother and Butterfly Aunt should have made some preparations, so she was anxious to return home.

  Nan Yue Lan walked into the pavilion, just hearing this sentence of veiled sarcasm, and saw her mother with a smile on her face, not revealing any thoughts or emotions, secretly admiring her cleverness. As a newcomer, having such a guide in front of her wasn't a bad thing.

  －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

  I haven't thanked you all for your support recently, have I? Slap myself!

  Thank you! Thank you!