webnovelfull Chapter 119 The Fate-Cultivating Skill of Zhao Family Village
Chapter 119 The Fate-Cultivating Skill of Zhao Family Village
"It contains its cultivation level. I thought it had been cultivating for two hundred years, but I didn't expect this cultivation crystal to only be one hundred years old."
So I find it very strange, how did it display the strength of two hundred years of cultivation?
Zhao Taohua explained.
Logically speaking, a cultivation crystal with only one hundred years of cultivation should not expand to two hundred years of cultivation.
Shen Ming asked, "Does every spirit possess this kind of crystal?"
Zhao Taohua shook her head, but any crystal that nurtures cultivation level will be matched with its cultivation level.
Shen Ming swept her up in a princess carry and said, "I'll carry you while you think about it, so you don't run into a tree again because you're not watching where you're going."
Zhao Taohua smiled secretly without refusing, but her thoughts were immediately drawn to the century-old crystal in her hand. She didn't even realize when she got home.
Seeing that she was lost in thought, Shen Ming decided not to send her to the embroidery workshop to learn embroidery. Instead, he placed her on a chair in the main room of the Zhao family and quietly closed the courtyard gate.
At noon, Qian returned to cook lunch, Zhao Ershu returned to eat, and the five spirits, including the Menstrual Spirit, although they didn't need to eat, also returned.
Zhao Taohua suddenly remembered the events of the past six months, such as the various spirits and evil spirits, and the heavy snow and hail in Zhao Family Village...
She asked Zhao Ershu, "Dad, when our village had heavy snow and hail before, did other villages also experience it?"
Zhao Ershu thought for a moment: "It did rain, but none of them were as big or as cold as our village."
Perhaps it's because our village is nestled at the foot of mountains that things are like this?
Zhao Taohua's pupils contracted; indeed, Zhao Family Village was special.
She pursed her lips. No village within a ten-mile radius was like Zhao Family Village, completely surrounded by mountains, like a village at the bottom of a basin.
She asked with some curiosity, "Father, how did our Zhao ancestors end up settling here?"
Zhao Ershu didn't know anything about this either, but according to Yuejiang's grandfather, their Zhao family moved here more than a hundred years ago because they were fleeing famine and then settled down here.
Zhao Taohua also recalled this person: Zhao Yuejiang is currently the oldest member of the Zhao clan, and he is seventy-two years old this year.
As he gets older, he doesn't go out much. Occasionally, he'll sit at the village entrance chatting with people, or sit in front of the Zhao Clan Ancestral Hall.
Zhao Taohua frowned: You moved here because you fled famine?
Because Zhao Family Village is surrounded by mountains, it is often shrouded in fog, resulting in extremely poor harvests and making it a poor village for many years.
Furthermore, because there were mischievous creatures and wolves on the mountain, people were previously unable to go up the mountain to cut firewood. Without sturdy firewood, even cooking was difficult.
However, no one thought of leaving, seemingly because of the ancestral teachings of their ancestors.
Even after lunch, Zhao Taohua was still thinking about it.
Suddenly, she felt it necessary to recount the events of more than a hundred years ago for the entire Zhao family village.
Her intuition told her that the natural disasters and evil spirits happening in Zhao Village now must be inextricably linked to what happened more than a hundred years ago.
However, more than a hundred years ago is far too long. Although Zhao Taohua now possesses a considerable amount of spiritual energy, it is certainly not enough to calculate it directly like this.
So she walked toward the Zhao family ancestral hall, hoping to glean something from the earliest ancestral tablets of the Zhao family.
Coincidentally, she ran into Mrs. Zhao Yuejiang here.
He was wearing a dark gray long gown and sat on a bench at the entrance of the ancestral hall.
He was thin, with sparse but neat silver hair, slightly drooping eyelids, and hands covered with blue veins, slightly protruding knuckles, and loose, wrinkled skin.
"Greetings, sir/madam."
Zhao Taohua greeted him.
He was the only one of his generation left in the village, and he was also probably the youngest among those born in the year of the moon.
Although Zhao Yuejiang is seventy-two years old, her eyes are still bright.
“It’s a peach blossom,” he replied.
"Yes, come and kowtow to our ancestors."
After saying that, Zhao Taohua walked into the ancestral hall.
From behind came Zhao Yuejiang's voice praising, "Taohua is truly filial. She doesn't come to pay respects to her ancestors, even though it's not a holiday."
When Zhao Taohua entered the ancestral hall, her gaze swept over the rows of ancestral tablets, and finally, her eyes fell on the top row, where the earliest ancestors of Zhao Family Village were enshrined.
Zhao Taohua formed hand seals and channeled spiritual energy into the name in the middle of the row.
As Zhao Taohua had predicted, she was able to obtain some useful information by directly divining from the Zhao family ancestors.
However, as time went by, the abundant spiritual energy within him was suddenly depleted.
Zhao Taohua lowered her hands, a hint of fear and disbelief flashing in her eyes.
Was their village deliberately placed in this place?
She looked up at the memorial tablets placed in the ancestral hall and was shocked to find that the names of the people in Zhao Family Village were composed of five repeated characters: Yue, Xiang, Ying, Guang, and Sheng.
Zhao Taohua repeated these five words in her mind, and the more she thought about it, the more something seemed off, as if she had seen them somewhere before.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind, and she remembered: "The moon shines brightly, bringing auspicious light."
This saying means that everyone has their most prosperous and auspicious time, just like the moon on the fifteenth of each month, shining brightly.
It could be changed to Yuexiang Yingguangsheng, but the meaning would be lost, and the significance would be different. The good fortune that the people of Zhao Family Village should have had would also be gone!
Their village was deliberately placed in this location, and the original order of the characters, which had auspicious meanings and good fortune, was intentionally altered.
What is the purpose of the person behind the scenes?
Who is the other party?
When Zhao Taohua tried to divine something from the ancestral tablets again, she discovered that the spiritual energy within her body was gone.
"The peach blossoms are gone?"
Zhao Yuejiang asked.
Zhao Taohua nodded with a smile.
Grandpa Yuejiang is seventy-two years old this year. In ancient times, living to such an old age was considered a long life.
However, many people in the village died in their thirties or forties.
For example, the fathers of Zhao Guangping, Zhao Shengzhu, Zhao Shengde, and Zhao Shenglin.
Many people from the Guang, Ying, and Xiang generations died young, which is largely related to the destruction of their life force.
Since the matter concerned the entire Zhao Family Village, Zhao Taohua immediately went to the embroidery workshop to find the village chief to discuss it with her.
"This...is that really the case?"
The village chief looked horrified.
He asked Zhao Taohua, "Taohua, do you mean that if we want to change their fate, we have to change their names?"
The village chief also belongs to the "Ying" generation; his name is Zhao Yingfu, and he is fifty years old this year, which is considered long-lived.
If what Zhao Taohua said is true, and he should belong to the "Xiang" generation, then he should be called Zhao Xiangfu!
Zhao Taohua nodded.
The village chief's face was solemn. For the sake of his own life and the lives of the villagers, he had to seriously discuss this matter with the clan chief and several elders of the village.
There are about two or three hundred people in the village with the generation names Xiang and Ying, although it is troublesome to go to Duting to change their names.
Even if it's troublesome, it's better than losing your life.
After speaking with the village chief, Zhao Taohua went to the embroidery workshop to continue learning embroidery.
When Shen Ming returns tonight, she will definitely hold his hand the whole time to replenish her depleted spiritual energy.
The next day, Zhao Taohua was learning embroidery in the embroidery workshop when suddenly a stern reprimand came from above:
“Peach Blossom, no wonder you went to the ancestral hall yesterday, so that’s what you were planning.”
"You're changing the generation name of 'Xiang' to 'Ying', and then changing the generation name of 'Ying' back to 'Xiang'—isn't that creating chaos?"
When Zhao Taohua looked up, she saw that Madam Zhao Yuejiang's eyes were sharp as an eagle's, locked onto her, full of dissatisfaction and reproach.