The largest inn in Longmen City was originally called Mingsheng Inn. It occupies a convenient location on the street opposite the Wanxiang Academy. I don’t know how many people come to the Wanxiang Academy to study or pay a visit in a year. They are not allowed to enter or wait.
During the visit, Hou Jie rested here, and many people from the academy were nearby setting up drinks and chatting.
However, after Wanxiang Academy was changed to Wanxiang Taoist Palace by Daomen, Mingsheng Inn was also changed to Taiping Inn by Daomen, and business was still booming.
After Qi Xuansu entered the city, he went straight to the largest Taiping Inn, because on the second floor of the inn, he could just see the southeast side entrance of Ziwei City, and behind the side entrance was the lower palace.
Children and teenagers in the lower palace are usually not allowed to leave Ziwei City. Occasionally, they go out through the side door. Only those Taoist priests who are quasi-fourth-grade wine worshipers can enter and exit from the main entrance. There is only one road, which leads directly to the upper palace Mingtang.
The lower palace is isolated.
Although he was heading straight to Taiping Inn, Qi Xuansu walked in no hurry. As he watched the people coming and going around him, memories of the past slowly came to his mind like a tide.
It was okay when I was a child, but I just followed the rules. When I was a teenager, I became bolder and began to try to escape from Ziwei City. It didn't mean to escape from the Wanxiang Taoist Palace and let the birds fly in the sky and the fish jump in the sea. I just simply wanted to
Look at the outside world. It's not even about the world, it's just about seeing the city of Longmen Mansion. For them, Yujing, Imperial Capital, and Jinling are too far away, and Longmen Mansion is already a world of flowers.
Although the walls of Ziwei City are very high, the young men in Wanxiang Dao Palace are not ordinary people. The best among them are almost touching the threshold of innate people. With the help of some tools, a city wall really can't stop them, so
In Longmen Mansion, we often see teachers coming out to catch people.
After being caught, you will naturally be punished, mostly corporal punishment.
If it is the first offense, it will be lighter, such as being forced to stand, not allowed to eat, work, etc.
If the person refuses to change despite repeated admonishment, he or she should be severely punished and whipped directly. Moreover, it is a very special whip that will not leave any obvious scars, but it will be extremely painful and will be remembered for a long time.
There are also those who hit the boards, the beatings were bloody and bloody, which was quite scary, but it didn’t hurt the muscles and bones. It took half a month to apply the medicine and it was healed, leaving no scars. This kind of thing is usually to scare the monkeys.
But even so, the teenagers are still enjoying it. They are not delicate flowers in the flower garden, nor are they pampered young ladies. They are strong-skinned and tenacious. For them, these corporal punishments are nothing at all, and there is no psychological shadow. Many of them are not.
People still take pride in being punished. After all, if their grades are poor, it will be difficult to get out.
Qi Xuansu was not a popular figure in the Wanxiang Taoist Palace back then, but he was still outstanding. Otherwise, he would not be hated by Yue Liuli. To put it bluntly, it takes qualifications to offend others.
Of course Qi Xuansu has done this kind of thing before, but it was always with others. Looking back now, he has not contacted those friends and friends for many years. I don’t know where they are now. Even if they meet again, it will probably be difficult to renew the friendship between classmates. After all, not everyone
They all can afford the "Mother and Son Talisman". If Qingping Council did not issue the "Mother and Son Talisman" every month, Qi Xuansu would not be able to use it now.
This is probably how fate comes and fate gathers, and fate goes and fate disperses. In life, it is not about having many friends. It is a blessing to have one or two close friends.
As for these old friends and acquaintances, Qi Xuansu is not optimistic about how many of them can succeed.
The most outstanding among them, Yue Liuli and Wan Xiuwu, the two leaders of the Longhu Club, were accepted as disciples by the master of the Wuxu Palace. Now they are only fifth-grade Taoist priests, not even high-grade Taoist priests.
If not, let alone others?
As Qi Xuansu's guide, Qiniang once gave Qi Xuansu a detailed explanation of the Taoist promotion.
What to rely on to climb up?
It is the result of a combination of ability and merit, personal connections, upper-level recommendations, lower-level foundation, noble opportunities, and hard work and qualifications. Among them, personal connections play an important role, even a fundamental role.
There are two top families within the Taoist sect, namely the Zhang family and the Li family. Originally, the Qin family was also counted as one, a three-legged family. However, as the Qin family became the royal family, it was no longer included among them. The characteristic of these top families is that they have a rich inheritance.
For example, the Zhang family controls Zhengyi Dao, and the Li family controls Taiping Dao. There are too many real people in the family. The Li family is known as one family with seven real people. This only refers to the inheritance of Xuansheng and Donghuang from Li Daoxu.
The direct lineage, side branches, sons-in-law, and adopted sons are not included. If they were included, there would be far more than seven people.
There are twelve first-class large families, and each family has more than three second-grade Taiyi Taoist priests. There are nearly a hundred small families, and there is at least one second-grade Taiyi Taoist priest in the family.
Disciples from the Wanxiang Taoist Palace do not belong to these families. They have no background to speak of. They can only look at the relationship between master and master. But there is only one master and there are so many brothers. Who can really take over the master's inheritance depends on luck.
Qiniang once made a rough statistics. Although the Taoist sect has a year-stopping system, this system actually restricts the children of aristocratic families. For ordinary disciples, almost no one can meet the standards for promotion before the year-stopping year.
To use the simplest analogy, Qi Xuansu's sixth-grade Taoist priest encountered a year-stop limit when he was promoted to fifth-grade Taoist priest, and it took one year before he could be promoted, because he wasted too much time at the stage of seventh-grade Taoist priest.
When they were going around, Wan Xiuwu and Yue Liuli had already accumulated seniority in the sixth-grade Taoist priests, so there was no restriction on stopping years. Later, Qi Xuansu's promotion was too fast, and he almost directly skipped the sixth-grade Taoist priests, which is why he encountered this
bottleneck.
But the reality for others is that it only takes one year to stop the year, but it takes more than five years to accumulate merit. For them, the stoppage has no impact, and almost no one can stick to the time limit of the year.
Promotion completed.
Qiniang concluded that, on average, it takes nine years to go from a ninth-grade Taoist priest to an eighth-grade Taoist priest, three years from an eighth-grade Taoist priest to a seventh-grade Taoist priest, seven years from a seventh-grade Taoist priest to a sixth-grade Taoist priest, and seven years from a sixth-grade Taoist priest.
It takes seven years to become a Taoist priest of the fifth grade.
In other words, an ordinary young man who leaves the Wanxiang Taoist Palace at his prime age enters the Taoist sect and becomes a ninth-grade Taoist priest. He is promoted to an eighth-grade Taoist priest at the age of twenty-nine, to a seventh-grade Taoist priest at the age of thirty-one, and to a seventh-grade Taoist priest at the age of thirty-eight.
A sixth-grade Taoist priest who becomes a fifth-grade Taoist priest at the age of forty-five has lost the possibility of becoming a high-grade Taoist priest, and will stop there in this life. Only a few people are lucky enough to become a fourth-grade Taoist priest, but that's it.
.
At the same age of fifty, the disciple from Wanxiang Taoist Palace is only a fifth-grade Taoist priest, while the disciple from a noble family is already a second-grade Taiyi Taoist priest, and is even expected to aspire to the title of Grand Master.
But this is still a very smooth situation. More people stop at being ninth-grade Taoist priests or seventh-grade Taoist priests. There are also many people who have been ninth-grade Taoist priests all their lives.
A child from a poor family has endured twenty years of hard work. He may have been transferred from one hall to another, turning many halls, but he has been stuck in the same place. At the same time, a child from an aristocratic family has already crossed the threshold of the fourth-grade Taoist priest.
Enter the ranks of high-quality Taoist priests.
In fact, each rank is a threshold, and there are several or even a dozen invisible steps hidden in it, which vary according to the hall, palace and position. Some halls and positions are easier to be promoted, such as the deacon of the Fluctuating Department of Tiangang Hall, and some
It is difficult to get promoted in positions such as the deacon of the requiem department of the ancestral hall.
A child from a well-established family can complete the leap in just a few years, and eventually become a rookie in the Taoist sect, rising to such high positions as deputy hall master, deputy palace master, and assistant manager. They are at least the rank of a third-grade Youyi Taoist priest. Zhang Yuelu's age is due to his suspension.
, only because of his high rank as a fourth-grade wine-offering Taoist priest, he was matched with the position of deputy hall master, but this is only temporary. It is only a matter of time before Zhang Yuelu is promoted to a third-grade wine-offering Taoist priest.
At this time, their opponents are no longer ordinary children from poor families, but children from aristocratic families with the same background, as well as some children from poor families with outstanding abilities. Therefore, the promotion of most people has become slow, or even stopped there.
A few people can stand out and join the ranks of second-grade Taiyi Taoist priests, truly stepping into the upper echelons of the Taoist sect.
However, if you have the background, ability, merits, and opportunities, then you must have a bright future. For example, Zhang Yuelu, after she participated in solving the Jiangnan case, she came into the eyes of the earth master, and was soon promoted, which brought about a series of problems.
The reaction made her stand out from the group of fellow apprentices and sisters, and she was designated as the successor by Master Cihang. She became what others said was a little leader with a bright future.
As for Qi Xuansu, he had no hope at all. The turning point was that Qiniang helped him enter Tiangang Hall. Going to the third hall was no joke. He was promoted quickly, and he met Zhang Yuelu, a good boss, and he naturally rose to prominence. If he hadn't because of
After accidentally leaving the Taoist sect, the fourth-level Taoist Priest Liquor is already stable, and as a direct descendant of Zhang Yuelu, when Zhang Yuelu becomes the real person of Shenzhi, he will probably be able to ascend to heaven and become an ordinary real person wearing a sword of wisdom, serving as Zhang Yuelu's deputy.
For example, Zhang Yuelu serves as the headmaster of Tiangang Hall, and he serves as the chief deputy hall master or the second deputy hall master.
His future destiny is firmly bound to Zhang Yuelu. If Zhang Yuelu can become the Grand Master, then he is also expected to ascend the throne of Zhenzhi Zhenren.
This is an opportunity, it is rare to find it.
How many people can meet Qiniang and Zhang Yuelu?
Qi Xuansu never felt that his fate was miserable, and that the sky was failing me. That was too hypocritical. In fact, he was considered a lucky man. In other words, if he survived a catastrophe, he would be blessed later. The assassin sent by Shen Yuxi failed to kill him, so he met
Qiniang is like a pawn crossing a river. Although there is still no way to advance and no retreat, at least there is room for movement.
Therefore, most of Qi Xuansu's classmates are still struggling, and they may not be able to survive.
Qi Xuansu looked in the direction of Wanxiang Taoist Palace and sighed in his heart, wondering if he would meet an old friend from back then.