Chapter 23: The True Art of the Middle Way

“After I return to the village, will you really come looking for me and marry me?” That night, Irene gave herself to Lin Chen, because at that moment, she felt that she had nothing left to give Lin Chen to keep him, except for herself.

“I will come back to take you away, but it will take a long time. Can you wait? Because I have a lot of things to do.” Lin Chen answered by playing with the long hair of Irene in his arms.

“I can wait for as long as it takes. How about I give myself a Chinese name? I’ll call myself Ailin, the homonym of my name. I want people to call me Ailin every day to remind me that I’m your woman and I love you.”

At that moment, Lin Chen’s eyes, which Irene wrote in her letter that she would never forget, were because it was the first time she had read a feeling called emotion in this man’s eyes.

Lin Chen didn’t ask what Lin Chen had to do, and Lin Chen just asked her if she would help him if he needed her help. Almost without hesitation, Lin Chen told Lin Chen that she would help him.

Eileen returned to the village, and for the sake of the man she loved, she even revealed the exact location of the village to Lin Chen.

They still met in secret, and gradually, Lin Chen had more and more questions to ask Irene, and more and more “small things” to ask her to help with. These questions were not complicated, and these small things were not difficult to do.

But Irene sensed that why did Lin Chen, an outsider, ask questions and do small things that were all related to the village?

Eileen tried to pretend that she was confused, and she really was confused. Finally, one time, when Qin Huai and Su Rou were captured, she couldn’t help but ask.

It was too coincidental. She had just told Lin Chen about it, and then Su Rou and Qin Huai were so coincidentally captured by the people of the Black Rock Miao Village.

Could Lin Chen be a member of the Black Rock Miao tribe? Irene finally couldn’t help but ask Lin Chen, and Lin Chen confessed directly that he was not a member of the Black Rock Miao tribe, but the organization he belonged to was currently cooperating with the Black Rock Miao tribe. He let Irene decide for herself.

He said that he would not forget his promise to Irene, even though she was not his only woman. He said that he had true feelings for Irene and was willing to take her with him.

The next few days were a hellish ordeal for Irene. She often struggled between compromise and a complete break. Finally, she could not choose. She could not bear her love, nor could she bear to let her people down. So she could only let herself down.

So, she chose to commit suicide.

“Ru Xue, I regret that my love was so foolish. I so hoped that you and Chengyi would have a happy ending, but unfortunately things don’t always go as planned. I’m gone, and the thought that crosses my mind the most at this moment is not him, but my guilt towards my clan.

I was foolish. I was not his only one, but the only Irene of my tribe. You are the only Irene. Unfortunately, he was my poison. Even if I knew, I would have swallowed it with a smile, wouldn’t I?

Goodbye, Ru Xue, goodbye, my village. In my next life, I don’t want to be human. I want to be a bird. Without annoying love, I will fly very happily.

The letter ends here. We who read it are all silent. In the letter, Irene organized all the information she had revealed to Lin Chen, and also revealed a very important piece of information, that is, the organization is very interested in Huigen, because on the last occasion, Lin Chen had asked Irene to take Huigen out of the village, but at that time, I had taken Huigen with me…

I was shocked by this news. I didn’t expect that my seemingly arbitrary decision was actually the right one.

The world will not stop turning because of someone’s death, just as the sun will still rise every day.

In the blink of an eye, Irene had been gone for three days. That day was the day of her funeral.

Lin Chen did stay behind, but he knew that no one in the village would welcome him, so he spent the next three days outside the village alone.

On the day of Irene’s burial, no one stopped him from entering the village. He was very quiet, only offering three incense sticks to Irene, standing in front of the grave for a moment, and then turning and leaving.

After attending Irene’s funeral, I returned to the house with my master. I asked him, “Did you know that Irene was a problem?”

“If you are determined to find out, there is nothing you cannot find out,” the master replied.

“Then why have you never said anything?” I asked my master in confusion.

“One is to use the plan to its advantage, and the other is to think about it yourself.” The master sighed and did not answer my question.

I was a bit stunned. I couldn’t think of a specific reason, but I subconsciously thought that if I were in his shoes, I would have done the same thing.

When I returned to the house, my master told me that we would be leaving for the Miao village of Heiyan the next day, and before that, he wanted me to perform the Zhongmao technique again.

My heart was a little uneasy because this time, when Master asked me to perform the Zhongmao technique, the object of my meditation had to be him, which was unthinkable to me.

But the master’s decision was unchangeable, because after all, it was related to the master’s ancestor.

I finally did it.

At that time, my master was in the house, and I performed the Zhongmao technique in the courtyard in front of the house. A miraculous thing happened. When I used the Zhongmao technique to store the power of my master, after the technique was completed, I actually borrowed a part of my master’s power.

Uncle Chen had been watching me the whole time. Although I had inherited all of Master Chen’s skills, my little habits and demeanor were indeed different. At that moment, I not only inherited Master Chen’s power, but also part of his spirit.

But after I had finished the spell, Master didn’t come out for a long time. After a long time, the door was opened, and what appeared before us was Master’s ecstatic but tired face!

“Chengyi can really use my power! I understand, I finally understand why Zhongmao’s art does not invite living colleagues.” The master’s words were shouted out, and at the same time he was almost trembling all over, showing how excited he was.

Soon, we also understood the taboo of the Zhongmao technique. If the Zhongmao technique is used on a living person, the living person will experience a short period of soul separation, and the person being used will be weakened and will be less than half of their normal state.

The phenomenon of the soul leaving the body is very common, even among ordinary people. For example, in deep sleep, the soul leaves the body for a short time! In general, ordinary people who have experienced this phenomenon will not feel awake after sleeping, but will instead feel drowsy and still want to sleep, not too awake.

This is a manifestation of weakness.

Taoist magic is not originally aimed at the dead. Do you mean that the Taoist magic involves inviting immortals, and the immortals invited are also the deceased immortals?

“I finally understand why the lower level of the three Taoist arts involves inviting ghosts and immortals. Because they are already in a spirit state, once a connection is established, it is easy to invite them to possess the body. The true middle level of the Taoist arts, when restored, should invite living members of the same sect. After all, it takes a stronger spiritual awareness, that is, mental power, to pull the power of the spirit out of the body. As for the upper Taoist art, what kind of existence is the life form of a fairy, and what kind of…” The master suddenly stopped talking, paused for a moment, and then said, “Therefore, the previous Zhongmao art of summoning deceased fellow practitioners is not as powerful as the lower Taoist art, because the fellow practitioners summoned are not necessarily stronger than ghosts and immortals, and are considered tasteless, which is simply a mistake. That is not the real Zhongmao art at all, it is a technique that is halfway between the lower and middle Taoist arts. I also figured out why no one has practiced the Upper Tao for hundreds of years. Hahaha…”

At the end of the story, the master laughed, patted my shoulder, and said proudly, “Sanwa, you have unintentionally restored the true Zhongmao technique.”

I restored the true Zhongmao technique? This is really a blind cat hitting a dead mouse! However, I still have too many unanswered questions. What exactly did the master mean by what he didn’t finish saying?

At this moment, Uncle Chen, who had been frowning, suddenly spoke up: “Li Chun, don’t you think that the Zhongmao technique that Chengyi performed is close to the Shangmao technique? After all, our master…”

Before Chen Shishu could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the Master, who said, “This is Zhongmao. Don’t forget that we are all from the same school. The unity of the same school is equivalent to a contract. Otherwise, why can’t the Zhongmao skills of other schools be used by our school? This is definitely still within the scope of Zhongmao skills!”