Asking About Longevity

Chapter 22 Clues

Yan Jiaoxi left the formation pavilion and returned to Tongming Peak of Tongxianmen.

Teachers of Tongxian Sect have separate rooms on Tongming Peak, with three bedrooms and one living room, and a small yard where they can plant some spiritual flowers and grasses, or raise spiritual animals.

Yan Jiaoxi's room is clean and tidy. The walls are neatly covered with array diagrams, but otherwise there is no other decoration.

He read through the basic formation books, prepared several formation patterns that he would teach later in the month, and then began to correct the formation homework submitted by the disciples in the Qi Refining Period.

There are nearly a thousand disciples in the Qi Refining Period of Tongxian Sect and Tongxuan Peak. He will correct all formation assignments one by one and mark errors.

This takes a lot of time and patience, but Yan Jiaoxi still does it meticulously.

 This is his habit and he adheres to his master’s teachings over the years.

His master also corrected the formations of his disciples in this way, meticulously and patiently.

 Yan Jiaoxi’s master is a first-grade formation master, and may not be considered a great formation master in the entire monastic world. But even so, throughout his life, he has been doing his best to preach and pass on the formations that adhere to the laws of heaven.

Now that his master has passed away and he has become a teacher, he can also appreciate his painstaking efforts.

It was getting late, Yan Jiaoxi lit the lamp and continued to correct the formation.

After all, Tongxian Sect is still a small and remote sect with a weak spiritual inheritance. Among the nearly a thousand disciples, only a few can draw the basic formation patterns in a decent way.

Those who are better at painting are generally those who have learned from home, or whose families are wealthy and are willing to spend spiritual stones to train them, such as the children of monks who serve in the Taoist Department, or the children of sect elders, or the monastic families in the city. Disciples and so on.



However, no matter where they were born, Yan Jiaoxi treated everyone equally and only looked at the formation.

Those who don’t draw well but have a serious attitude will make more comments and explanations; those who don’t draw well and have a careless attitude will use harsher comments and their names will be written down by strict instructors;

Occasionally, Yan Jiaoxi would feel gratified if someone painted very well, and would write the word "Excellent" next to the formation as a sign of encouragement.

Yan Jiaoxi took the trouble to correct it. When he turned to a formation, his eyes lit up.

 The brushwork is very skillful, he has obviously put in hard work, and he is very organized. Even if it is used to draw a formal formation, this formation pattern is still qualified.

Yan Jiaoxi looked up and curled his eyebrows, writing the word "Mo Hua". He couldn't help but nodded, and then wrote the word "Excellent" next to the formation.

 The word "you" should be written larger than other "you" characters.

 Yan Jiaoxi turned over and continued to correct.

After changing it, Yan Jiaoxi turned it over again, found the pattern drawn in ink, and couldn't help but frowned.

The brushwork of this formation pattern is a bit too proficient, and it even looks a bit...at ease?

 For monks at the second and third levels of Qi Refining, it is already good if they can draw a complete formation pattern.

Thinking of meeting Mo Hua in Zhen Pavilion today, Yan Jiaoxi pondered and said nothing, and suddenly a question popped up:

 “Mo Hua, does he have an older brother?”

"If his brother is good at painting formations and he is good at painting, then he should have a family education. But if I remember correctly, Mo Hua is obviously just a poor casual cultivator. Anyone with a little knowledge of formations has a poor family background. It would be too bad…”

“His brother can help draw formations for the formation pavilion, so he must be quite talented in formations in Tongxian Sect. I have been teaching in Tongxian Sect for nearly ten years, and I don’t think I have ever taught this person..."

“In other sects? It’s unlikely. Brothers from the same family usually join the same sect, not to mention that Tongxian Sect is already the largest sect in the city…”

Yan Jiaoxi tapped his fingers on the table and thought, then temporarily suppressed all his thoughts and concentrated on correcting the formation.

The next day, Yan Jiaoxi got up very early. He went to the steward of Tongming Peak and asked for a copy of his disciple’s place of origin. He looked through the column of ink paintings and saw that it read:

 Ink painting: Ten years old, third level of Qi refining, medium to low grade small five elements spiritual root...

 Father: Mo Shan, a demon hunter; Mother: Liu Ruhua, a chef.

 Except for his parents, he has no other relatives, and no brothers at all.

Yan Jiaoxi had a vague guess in his mind, but he felt it was unlikely.

During the formation class in the morning, Yan Jiaoxi announced that he would add a temporary assignment to draw all the five-element formation patterns he had learned and hand it in three days later.

 The disciples here suddenly heard the bad news, and they were all like eggplants beaten by frost.

 Ink painting doesn't matter, he has already helped the formation to draw the formation. Now it's just a few formation patterns, which doesn't take much effort.

 Why did Yan Jiaoxi suddenly assign these homework assignments temporarily?

 It’s not like what a teacher would do on a daily basis.

 Ink painting is a bit confusing. Then An Xiaopang came to Mo Hua.

 “Mo Hua, you must help me!” An Xiaopang almost cried.

Who knows why the teacher suddenly assigns homework? It usually takes a few months to assign homework to test the disciples' formation level.

An Xiaopang was caught off guard. He couldn't draw a single formation pattern, and time was tight, so he had to come and ask for ink drawings.

 Ink painting doesn't matter, these basic formation patterns are no longer difficult for him now.

Mo Hua helped An Xiaopang draw the formation, even for a friendly price. Several other disciples who came from good families but were not good at formations asked Mo Hua to come here, and Mo Hua also agreed.

Ink paintings have arranges, and Lingshi earn, so I have no thoughts.

Three days later, the formation homework was handed in. Yan Jiaoxi picked out the formation patterns drawn in ink, looked at them carefully, then put them into his storage bag, and went to Youyuanzhai to find the fat steward.

 The fat steward was a little wary when he saw Yan Jiaoxi, "Are you here to drink tea with me this time, or are you here to ask me to do errands?"

Yan Jiaoxi said: "I won't drink tea, and I won't let you do anything. I just want to ask you something."

 The fat steward breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, that's okay."

“Do you still have the formation diagram Mo Hua gave you?”

“Ink painting?” The fat steward was slightly startled, “Oh, that little brother, I do have one, what do you want to do?”

 “How many pairs are there?”

“There are still several pairs of open fire formations and solid earth formations, and I keep them as spares.”

The fat steward each took out an ink painting of the open fire formation and solid earth formation that he had delivered before, and handed them to Yan Jiaoxi.

Yan Jiaoxi looked through it once, then took out the formation homework he handed in with the ink painting, and compared it one by one with the formation patterns on it.

 After reading it, Yan Jiaoxi took a deep breath.

 The fat steward stretched his neck to look and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Yan Jiaoxi pointed to the formation patterns and the formations at hand and asked:

“Do you think these formation patterns and these two formations were painted by one person?”

The fat steward took the formation patterns and formations, frowned and looked at them carefully, nodded and said:

“The brushwork is quite similar. No surprise, it must have been written by the same person..."

The fat steward thought for a while and suddenly said, "Have you met Mo Hua's brother?"

 “Ink painting has no brothers.”

“No brother? Then who drew these formations?”

Yan Jiaoxi looked at the fat steward with intriguing eyes.

The fat steward was stunned for a moment, "You wouldn't say that he painted it himself, would you?"

 Yan Jiaoxi nodded.

The fat steward was silent for a moment, and then sneered.

 “What nonsense are you talking about?”

"Not to mention the open fire formation, it is still possible that he can draw it. There are four formation patterns in this solid earth formation. Where did he get so much spiritual consciousness? Could it be that he has two heads and two seas of consciousness? Can’t do it?”

The fat steward looked at Yan Jiaoxi suspiciously and continued:

“You want to say that you taught a genius who can draw formations at the third level of Qi refining? You don’t want to deliberately put yourself in a good position... I have known you for so many years, and you are not such a person!”

Yan Jiaoxi looked at him coldly, pointed at the formations in front of him and said: "These formation patterns and these two formations were made by one person. You said this yourself. These formation patterns were painted by ink Yes, then who should have drawn these two formations?"

 The fat steward was blocked and speechless.

Looking at the formation patterns on the left and the formation on the right for a long time, he murmured: "No way..."

 (End of this chapter)