Pawn Crossing the River

The flying boat soon left Wuzhou and headed towards Kunlun.

Compared with traveling to Kunlun by land, Feizhou saves time and effort. After leaving Wuzhou, we go north along the border between Huzhou and Xiaozhou, then pass through Shuzhou and enter the vast and sparsely populated territory of Yongzhou.

According to the division of Taoist sects, Shuzhou belongs to Shuzhou Taoist Prefecture, and Yongzhou belongs to Kunlun Taoist Prefecture.

The difference between the two is that Shuzhou Taoist House is a veritable Quanzhen Taoist House, with Quanzhen Taoist disciples accounting for the vast majority, while Kunlun Taoist House is a neutral Taoist house, with the proportion of disciples of the three Taoist schools being about the same. When he is in power, the direct henchmen of the Grand Master will serve as the true master.

This also involves the various rules of the Taoist sect regarding the Grand Master.

The Grand Master is elected by thirty-six Masters who know the truth and a varying number of Great Masters. They are usually from one of the three Taoist realms. Although the Taoist sect does not advocate nepotism, no one will do so, and the Grand Master If you want to implement the executive order, you must reuse your own close relatives. As a result, the faction with the emergence of a great leader benefited greatly, and its power expanded rapidly, squeezing the other two major factions. This is also the reason why the three factions are bound to win the title of great leader. one of the reasons.

Xuansheng was well aware of the shortcomings, but because of Buddhism, he was unable to change it. Therefore, in the later period, he stripped off part of the power of the Grand Master and gave it to Jinque. He repeatedly raised Jinque, making Jinque the highest power of Taoism. The organization can not only elect the Grand Master, but after holding a major meeting, as long as more than 90% of the Jinque members agree, it can even forcibly depose the Grand Master.

In addition, Xuan Sheng also made a rule that the three deputy head masters, the great masters, will assist the chief master, and the four of them will jointly control the Taoist sect. If there are differences of opinion between the four people, unless the three chief masters, the great masters, all object, otherwise the big master will be dismissed. The leader is the leader. In other words, as long as the three deputy head masters agree, they can veto the order of the big head. The big head must get the support of a deputy head master to fully implement his will.

However, considering that the Grand Master is almost bound to have the support of the Deputy Master of his own faction, Xuan Sheng added a new rule after suppressing Buddhism. The Grand Master’s major orders must go through Jinque. As long as Jinque If the number of opponents exceeds twenty-four, then the order of the Grand Master can be vetoed.

Xuansheng restricted some of the powers of the Grand Master to prevent a certain faction from disrupting the internal balance of the Taoist sect because of the Grand Master. Except when Xuansheng was on the throne, after the other five generations of great sects came to power, the other two major factions would quickly form an alliance to check and balance the great sect's faction through their numbers.

Of course, if fundamental interests are not involved, the other two factions will not oppose for the sake of opposition, and more often choose to follow the orders of the Grand Master. The key is that the interests of the two major factions are not completely consistent. Most of the time they can only agree on vetoes, but cannot unify their opinions to propose their own decrees, so they are in a defensive position.

In addition, although the Grand Master cannot depose the identity of Shenzhi Zhenren and must go through the Golden Que to depose Shenzhi Zhenren or Pingzhang Daren, the power of appointing and removing personnel in Jiutang and the local Taoist government still rests with the Grand Master. In the hands, there is no need to go through Jinque. If he is dismissed from his post by the great leader, even if he has the identity of Zhenzhi Zhenren, he is still a big shot in the Tao sect and can exert influence secretly, but the actual power in his hands is definitely less than that of other Zhenzhi Zhenren. .

Take Master Donghua as an example. Now he is the leader of Ziwei Hall. With this status, whether he is a disciple of Zhengdao or a disciple of Taiping Dao, he must look at Master Donghua’s face in the evaluation and promotion, because the name is true. Shun. But if Master Donghua loses his identity as the master of Ziwei Hall, then even if he is still Master Shenzhi, he can only affect the Quanzhen Tao disciples. The other two disciples will not care about Master Donghua’s orders, because they are not famous. The right words don't make sense.

In summary, the relationship between the Grand Master and Jin Que is somewhat similar to the relationship between the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies in the previous dynasty. The Cabinet has the power to vote and can propose various decrees, while the Supervisor of Ceremonies has the power to approve and veto. power. Both of them only have partial powers granted by the emperor. Only when both parties work together can they be equal to complete imperial power.

In this way, there are advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is to prevent the Taoist sect from falling into crisis due to the big head's insistence on going his own way. The disadvantage is that it also makes the following big heads lack sufficient power. In addition, the great heads of the future generations already have prestige. Not as good as Xuan Sheng, who cannot integrate the three paths at all.

In fact, Xuan Sheng's intention is also very obvious. He does not want a certain great master in later generations to use violent means to destroy the other two ways and pay the price of civil strife in the Tao sect to integrate the three ways. The contradictions and factional differences between the three Taoisms can be eliminated by relatively mild means. After all, the three Taoisms belong to the same Taoist sect, have the same origin, and worship the same Taoist ancestor. They are not as clear-cut as the disputes between Confucianism and Taoism or Buddhism and Taoism. Even if force is really needed, it would be best to limit it to some of the higher-ups and not affect the entire Taoist sect.

To put it simply, Xuan Sheng believes that even if some drastic measures have to be used, it is better to use a "palace coup" where a small number of people bleed, rather than a "Battle of Jingnan" that affects the entire world and involves the entire Taoist sect. .

However, there is no eternal law in the world, and all rules and laws are timely. Now two hundred years have passed since the Xuansheng era, and the situation of the Taoist sect is also very different from that of the Xuansheng era. The rules that seemed to be foolproof back then By now, there are already loopholes.

Xuansheng never expected that the position of the Grand Master would be vacant after the Sixth Generation of Grand Masters. In a sense, the Three Dao restricted the Grand Master, and the Grand Master also restricted the Three Daos. The deputy head master, Da Zhenren, forms a balance with the chief head master. Most of the chief heads will not favor the faction they are from without any bottom line, but will be in a more detached position, balancing in the middle.

After the Grand Master was gone, no one could control the three Deputy Masters, the Great Master, and they immediately had a three-legged stance. And Taiping Dao even made the idea of ​​attracting the imperial court to provide aid, which made the situation in the Taoist sect extremely complicated. Clouds of civil strife had already gathered in the sky above Yuxu Peak.

Under this situation, Kunlun Dao Sect also had a split within it. The palace master, the chief deputy palace master, and the second deputy palace master were also three pillars, each with subordinates and backing. This caused the Kunlun Taoist House to repeatedly shrink to Yujing to prevent major changes in Yujing. In other words, once there were changes in Yujing, the power of the Kunlun Taoist House could enter Yujing as soon as possible. As for the Kunlun Taoist Temple without a great master, Who can use the mansion depends on the methods of the three deputy masters.

Therefore, with the Kunlun Pass as the boundary, the five thousand miles of Kunlun within the Kunlun Pass are heavily guarded. Outside the Kunlun Pass, including Yongzhou, because the Kunlun Taoist Office has deployed most of its manpower, it can no longer be said that the guards are sparse, and even some blank areas have been created. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for the Lingshan Witch Cult to choose to cast their gods in Yishan City.

The flying boat sailed through the border of Shuzhou and entered the territory of Yongzhou, which is the outskirts of Kunlun Daofu.

The old Taoist walked out of his room unhurriedly. Without seeing his movements, he broke through the formation that prohibited going out and came to the deck outside. He stood in the roaring wind, his clothes rustling, but his figure was Unmoved.

Many people saw this scene and couldn't help but be surprised.

The old man came to the railing. His hands were as dry as tree roots. He grabbed the railing with one hand and patted the railing with the other hand. He murmured: "Based on the trend of mountains and rivers and the hidden trend of dragon veins, the winding terrain of dragon veins can be regarded as Feng Shui veins." , from west to east, is divided into three areas, called the Three Dragons, the south of the Dajiang River is the Southern Dragon, the area between the Dajiang River and the Yangtze River is the Middle Dragon, and the north of the Yangtze River is the Northern Dragon. Therefore, the three major dragon veins in the world all originate from Kunlun. Not only is it a holy land of Taoism, but it is also the ancestor of the mountains. Now it is not far from Kunlun, and it can be said to be a geomantic treasure."

The old man was already weak and his voice was very low. When the wind blew, it completely dissipated. Even if he stood next to the old man, he could not hear clearly. It even makes people doubt whether the old man himself can understand what he is saying.

However, Zhang Yuelu had already sensed something was wrong, and without caring much, he also rushed out of the ship building protected by the formation and came to the deck outside.

Although the strong wind was fierce, Zhang Yuelu had exerted enough strength, and his feet seemed to have taken root on the ground without moving an inch.

The old man glanced at Zhang Yuelu and said cheerfully: "Master Zhang."

Zhang Yuelu's face changed slightly: "Do you recognize me?"

The old man said leisurely: "I came here just for you. The credit for the heads of our Lingshan Witch Cult is very hot."

Zhang Yuelu didn't say anything nonsense. He swept his body and attacked the old man.

The old Taoist seemed to be on guard. He raised his hand and a golden light flashed through, forcing Zhang Yuelu to stop.

The golden light almost passed by Zhang Yuelu, leaving a mark half a foot deep on the deck of the flying boat that was comparable to King Kong.

"The power of the ancient immortal!" Zhang Yuelu was startled and figured out everything in an instant. His uneasiness did not come from his mother or the Taoist sect, but from the secret association!

The type of divine power can be judged by the color of the divine power. For example, the Wuluo divine power of the Bon Temple last time symbolizes blood sacrifice and is blood red. People must be killed by the sight of blood, otherwise they will not stop dying, but they will not harm dead objects at all. .

This kind of golden divine power is like true energy, indestructible, very domineering, and is also the most common divine power.

The old Taoist rolled up his sleeves, revealing his wrists as thin as dead wood, with a string of beads on them.

Zhang Yuelu has also seen this style of flowing beads, which is a common style in Lingshan shamanism. There are a total of twelve flowing beads, and each flowing bead is engraved with a different image of Wu Luo, either like an ordinary person or like a dragon. Snakes may have three heads and six arms, or two heads and four arms, or their eyebrows may have open eyes, or their ribs may have wings.

This kind of flowing beads are not spiritual objects, treasures, or semi-immortal objects, but disposable items similar to "dragon eyes" and "phoenix eyes". After the divine power in them is used up, it becomes waste.

Its power is closely related to the material. Ordinary Lingshan Witch Cult members can only use wood, the higher-level leaders can use bone, and elites such as Lin Zhenyuan can use ordinary jasper.

The string of flowing beads on the old Taoist's wrist is made of quite rare topaz.