Li Yun and Rouxi arrived at the destination using Lihom’s GPS coordinate. The marker showed an area located in the back of the alleyway. It wasn’t dirty, but it was between two tall modern buildings that shadowed the path and created the damp environment.
“Hey, hey! You’re here,” a voice cried out from the side as the door popped open to reveal Lihom.
He had already removed his robe and was dressed in simple slacks, t-shirt and thick framed glasses. He looked more like an unemployed man living in his parent's basement. Even with Li Yun’s ability, he couldn’t even guess Lihom's main job. To further that assumption, Lihom escorted them down the stairs and into the basement level. They entered the corridor that was lit by an old T12s fluorescent light. Once they reached a door, Lihom unlocked the door and led them inside. The only source of lighting was the hundreds of red candles surrounding the room.
“This might look excessive, but it’s only because my master doesn’t like to use technology,” Lihom explained.
“But he picked up your phone..” Rouxi couldn’t help but comment.
“The mobile phone is the only device he’s willing to use,” Lihom explained, but then whispered to the side. “It’s also good marketing ploy.”
Li Yun turned his eyes over to the elderly man who was sitting in the middle of the room and meditating with his eyes closed. However, on closer inspection, it looked like he was just sleeping.
“Master Gen, this is Master Li Yun and Mistress Song Meilin,” Lihom introduced with a traditional martial bow to his master.
Li Yun and Rouxi followed suit and both bowed respectfully.
“Oh ho, so you must be the young cultivator that the divination had foretold about all these years,” Master Gen commented.
“Master Gen was able to divine the future about me?” asked Li Yun.
“No, not me personally, but in our lineage, there is a book of prophecy. Of the three main prophecies, only one had not been fulfilled,” Master Gen explained. “One of the immortals will reincarnate and will decide the fate of the world. We are not able to understand the exact meaning, but the date forecasted is assumed to be in this century.”
“May I see the exact prediction?” asked Li Yun.
Master Gen took out a scroll hidden in his robe and passed it onto Lihom, who then passed it onto Li Yun. The scroll wasn’t old. The cheap plastic brown rod looked very recent and the medium itself was some cotton paper. Li Yun unraveled it, revealing a short passage written in bone script.
“Over time, we had recopied the script and passed it down through the lineage,” Master Gen explained. “My master, and his master had retained the original based on our 1000 years of lineage. We had a linguistic expert decipher it, but the closest translation refers to the return of the immortal after three thousand cycles around the sun.”
Li Yun nodded. From his understanding of the script, it was closer to “the immortal will return to examine the seed that had been sown. If it is still young, let it grow. If it is beautifully grown, harvest for the 9th realm. If it has withered, replant the seed. If it is endangered, destroy the danger.”
“This prophecy is said to be given to Zhuangzi by a monk,” said Master Gen. “According to our legend, they gave each other the prediction that used the fate of mankind as the subject. Using their own method of divination, they left behind two predictions for the lineage to safeguard. The monk lineage kept the ones from Zhuangzi, and our lineage kept the one given to Zhuangzi by the monk.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“But how did you come to the conclusion that it is about me?” asked Li Yun.
“We do not have the information on the hexagram or its transformation,” Master Gen replied. “According to the oral tradition, when they did their divination at the same time, the coins closest to them both split into halves with an open ended result. For you to get the same result is as low of probability as the existence of life itself. If the cosmo isn’t pointing to you, then who else could it be?”
“Do you understand what the purpose is?”
Master Gen shook his head, “Hey, I get people coming here to ask what is the meaning of life, how am I supposed to know?”
Li Yun scratched his head, "I guess not."
“You’re probably on some sort of mission. Is there anything I can assist you with?”
Li Yun nodded. “I am hoping to understand the different realms.”
“Understanding the realms is difficult. We do not have a concrete idea of how many worlds exist beyond the dantian.”
“They used to say, dreams are the closest for most humans to glimpse into the world beyond our own."
“Have you heard stories about entering the realm in a different method, like arrays?”
“There are stories, but the information has been lost for centuries. Many lineages believed that there were three different realms and nine bodies. Other lineages of Taoism believed in the sanhunqipo, or three soul bodies “hun” and seven non-physical or ghost bodies “po”. In essence, they are both right.”
Li Yun had also read about the two main lines of thinking, but talking about realms was like talking about the heavens. It was simply too far removed from the human realm of possibility that it was pointless to make any sort of conjecture. That was, until he entered one himself.
“A person exists in three realms, known as heaven, earth, and the human realm,” Master Gen continued. “The equivalent names were universe realm, spirit realm, and physical realm. Within the three realms, they are further divided into three other realms, also defined as universe, spirit and physical. The spirit soul is further divided into three different souls- celestial soul, mental soul, and physical soul.”
To assist Li Yun, Master Gen drew a mini chart and sent it to Li Yun’s phone. Li Yun thought it was funny for a guy who didn’t like technology, he typed pretty fast. His icon was even a female animated character.
MasterYue:
Universe-universe = Core or Essense universe
Universe-spirit = Spiritual universe
Universe-physical = Physical universe
Spirit-universe = death soul
Spirit-spirit = spirit soul (Can be divided into three more)
Spirit-physical = birth soul
Physical-universe = energy field of the body
Physical-spirit = spirit of the body
Physical-physical = the human body
“This is a lot more detailed than I thought,” Li Yun commented. “What happens if a body dies in the spirit realm?”
“It will depend on whether your body really dies in the physical realm or spirit realm,” said Master Gen. “As the spirit realm can be divided further into three realms, sometimes people who travelled to the spirit realm will see it as reality. If they aren’t too careful, they might be trapped in an infinite loop between the spirit realm and three sub realms. If you die in the sixth realm, you will still live as long as you understand that it isn’t reality.”
Li Yun nodded, but there were still a lot of things he did not understand. “Can I consult with you in the future?”
“Our lineage will do our best to assist you,” Master Gen also sent Li Yun’s Lihom’s number. The lineage consisted of two people, Master Gen and his son, Lihom.
“Do you know much about feng shui?” Li Yun asked.
Master Gen shook his head. “If you want to learn feng shui, you may have to travel to Maple Countey.”
“Maple Country?” Li Yun thought it was the last country to visit to learn about Taoism. It was practically on the other side of the world.
“There were some lineages that immigrated over there, and they were able to keep their lineages.”
Li Yun sighed. It looked like he needed to apply for a passport and learn a different language if he wanted to understand divination and feng shui. Before embarking on that road, there were still other things he had to settle, like the early release date of the Shennong App.