Chapter 748
Extra 3
Chapter 748 Extra 3
About three to five days later, Lu Qing was taken by two Taoist priests to bathe and change clothes, and then led to a large hall.
Lu Qing had never been to Taoist temples or Buddhist monasteries before, and could only recognize that the main hall enshrined the Three Pure Ones, and that the hermit of Qiyun Mountain was wearing a purple Taoist robe that he had never seen before, and was burning incense and praying in front of the statue.
Waiting outside with Lu Qing was a child of similar age to him.
The two boys looked at each other, both hesitant to speak, yet unable to resist curiously observing each other.
Lu Qing felt she was already very thin, but the boy was even thinner than her. His face looked like it was almost just a pair of large, protruding eyes. He was wearing a simple Taoist robe, just like Lu Qing. Neither of them could fill out their clothes, and from a distance they looked like two bamboo poles carrying two sets of clothes.
After a while, the worship ceremony at Qiyun Mountain ended, and several young Taoist priests took Lu Qing and the other boy over to teach them how to perform the apprenticeship ceremony.
The two children hurriedly followed through all the procedures, their faces filled with an unbelievable joy, as if they had just had a wonderful dream.
"Alright, now that the ceremony is complete, you are both my disciples. From now on, you must study diligently and practice hard, otherwise I will expel you from the sect, understand?" Qiyun Mountain Man said to the two children with a stern face.
"Yes, Master!" the two replied in unison, using their loudest voices.
After that day, Lu Qing gained a companion. The skinny child was named Yan Daoxin. He was a child that Qiyun Mountain Man picked up by chance when he went out after meeting Lu Qing. Qiyun Mountain Man also gave him the name.
The area was suffering from a famine, and the victims lacked food and water. In order to fill their stomachs, they went to the mountains to look for wild vegetables and herbs. They didn't care whether they recognized them or not; as long as they didn't starve to death, they would eat anything they could put in their mouths.
As it turned out, many strange and poisonous plants grew on that mountain. Some of them would cause vomiting and diarrhea if eaten, some would cause nosebleeds and mouth bleeding, and some would even kill a person shortly after being eaten.
Almost everyone in the village was poisoned, except for Yan Daoxin. His family had died early, and he had been fostered in his uncle's house. After the famine, no one cared about his life or death. It wasn't until everyone was tormented by the poisonous herbs and was almost half dead that someone noticed that Yan Daoxin had never been poisoned from beginning to end.
Curious onlookers noticed that when he went to pick wild vegetables, he avoided all the grasses that others had mistakenly eaten. When pressed for an explanation, he couldn't say why, only that the grasses had a strange taste and he dared not eat them. He had previously tried to persuade his uncle's family not to eat them, but they didn't believe him and couldn't stop him. That's why he was the only one who was safe and sound.
If a smart person encountered this situation, they would probably realize that the child was exceptionally gifted, and then follow him to pick wild vegetables, avoiding all poisonous plants to ensure safety. Everyone would be fine.
However, the people in that village were ignorant and superstitious. When they heard about it, they insisted that Yan Daoxin was possessed by evil spirits. Otherwise, why could he be the only one who could avoid the poisonous plants all over the mountain? They believed that he and the evil spirits were trying to harm the villagers.
So he was driven out of the village, and his uncle's family was happy to have one less burden, so they abandoned him in the remote wilderness.
Fortunately, they encountered the hermit of Qiyun Mountain. He originally only wanted to save a life, but he did not expect that the child had such talent, so he took him back to Shanqing Temple.
After the apprenticeship ceremony was completed, Yan Daoxin lived in the same courtyard as Lu Qing and studied with the Qiyun Mountain Man. More than a year passed in the blink of an eye.
Over the course of a year, the two of them ate well, slept soundly, and grew taller rapidly. By the time they were in their early teens, Lu Qing, who had been thin, had become tall and sturdy, and was no longer the pale and thin girl she used to be.
Yan Daoxin was never as tall as Lu Qing, but he was still tall and slender, and his face became increasingly handsome. Several times when he went down the mountain with the hermit of Qiyun Mountain, he was mistaken for a pretty young Taoist nun, which made him so angry that he jumped up and down. Although they ate and lived together, the two of them studied different things.
Lu Qing studied a wide variety of subjects, from ancient classics to military strategies. Every day at dawn, he would be woken up to practice martial arts, demonstrating his mastery of both literary and military skills.
Yan Daoxin, on the other hand, devoted himself to studying medicine under the guidance of Qiyun Shanren. He not only mastered various medical books and pharmacopoeias, but also personally tasted all kinds of medicinal herbs and flowers every day, regardless of whether they were medicinal or poisonous.
The two boys kept each other company, and their days of studying were quite carefree and happy.
On this day, another person was brought to the side courtyard where the two of them lived. It was a boy who was about the same age as them, dressed in fine clothes, with a pale and ashen face. He was carried there on someone's back.
“Junior brother, who do you think this person is? His clothes look so magnificent. I’ve never seen such luxurious fabrics in my life!” Yan Daoxin squatted under the eaves and looked at him from afar, nudging Lu Qing, who was sitting next to him, with his elbow.
Lu Qing turned around and glared at him: "I am the senior brother, and you are the junior brother. I entered the Qingshan Temple before you and became a disciple many days earlier than you."
“The two of us performed the apprenticeship ceremony in one day. What if you entered the Shanqing Temple a few days earlier? Your earlier statement about whether you would become an apprentice or not doesn’t count until the ceremony is completed!”
"I'm actually a few months older than you by age, so it's not unfair for you to call me 'senior brother'!" Yan Daoxin replied with a grin.
Lu Qing stood up, dusted herself off, and turned to walk back.
"Junior brother, where are you going?" Yan Daoxin turned his head and asked.
"I'm tired, I need to go back to my room to rest!" Lu Qing said without turning his head.
"You still haven't told me what you think that person's background is!"
"Didn't you live in the capital before? You must be more knowledgeable than me!" Yan Daoxin pressed on.
"Stop being so noisy!" Lu Qing glared at him. "If you keep making such a racket, I'll have Master concoct some medicine to make you mute sooner or later!"
After saying that, he slammed the door shut, leaving the noisy Yan Daoxin outside.
Actually, he did recognize the person who had been carried in earlier.
That was his nominal younger brother, the beloved son of the current emperor and his first wife, Empress Wang, the eldest prince, Lu Chao.
It was because Empress Wang's health was deteriorating that she was unable to take care of her own son, Lu Chao, and was unable to take care of Lu Qing as well. Therefore, he was sent to the palaces of other concubines, staying here for a while and there for a while.
All the hardships he experienced began around that time.