Techniques and Dao

Chapter 1 The Fiery Shipwreck
The icy seawater submerged Hanamori's face, and all she could hear was the gurgling of bubbles in her ears. Looking up from the water, she could vaguely see flickering lights on the surface of the sea.

The firelight on the water's surface grew farther and farther away, and he was slowly sinking underwater. The water pressure increased, and his eardrums began to ache. The surrounding light became scarcer, and his already blurry vision became even more blurred.

Why am I in the water? Where am I?

Completely forgetting what he was thinking, all Hua Sheng wanted to do at that moment was to swim to the surface as quickly as possible. He spread his arms, and suddenly a piercing pain, almost causing him to faint, erupted from near his heart, like a high-voltage current piercing through his body.

He must have suffered extremely serious injuries. In the limited light, he could see dark liquid floating in the water, slowly rising from his mouth and chest. At that moment, a strong smell of blood filled his mouth. Although he couldn't breathe underwater, instinctively, he could quickly identify the taste of blood.

Am I going to die if this continues?

His consciousness began to fade, but his survival instinct still made him try his best to wave his arms. The icy seawater kept filling his lungs, and he, who used to be a swimmer, could not muster any strength at this moment.

Right, I think I just fell into the sea from a ship... no, from a huge cruise ship. Did the cruise ship run aground due to some accident? Why is there a big fire?
But none of that matters anymore. Hanamori can't see anything, perhaps because she's too far from the sea, or perhaps because she's lost too much blood, causing her to lose her sight.

Gradually, the seawater became less cold. It seemed that even without air, it wasn't so uncomfortable. I've heard that water contains oxygen, and if you fall into the sea and your lungs are filled with water, the oxygen in the water can help you survive for a while.

But that doesn't make sense. If that were the case, wouldn't there be no people drowning?
Hanamori was powerless, and images flashed before her eyes. She was an orphan; if she died now, she would never see her biological parents again. What did they look like? What were they doing right now…?

Why was he in the sea? He was surprised that he couldn't remember the reason at all, even though it had only happened a few seconds ago. But as if from another world, some things had been erased from his memory, leaving only pain, coldness, and a feeling of suffocation.

Suddenly, images of monster faces and fangs began to flash through his mind, like wild beasts he had never seen before. It was as if they were projections of some kind of reality.

These hideous faces appeared in the dark seawater, accompanied by hallucinations, their malevolent pupils staring at him, as if trying to devour his soul.

Realizing that the encounter had ended there, Hua Sheng slowly disappeared into the endless darkness.

So be it. All species come from the sea, including humans. To be devoured by a fish is like returning home.

A faint glimmer of light remained on the seabed. The last thing Hanamoto saw was a glowing deep-sea fish swimming past. If it were a dive, and there were more lights, the seabed teeming with coral and starfish must have been incredibly beautiful.

After an unknown amount of time, Hua Sheng saw colorful lights and shadows before his eyes, and he felt that he had regained some consciousness.

This is?

Although I couldn't see clearly, it wasn't in the sea; it felt like it was lying somewhere, and the texture was rough. Right, it was on the beach.

In the distance, two blurry figures were gradually approaching.

Hanamori's eyelids couldn't fully open; she could only see blurry outlines. One was dressed in white, the other in black.

What is that blood-red thing in the middle? A thought flashed through Hua Sheng's mind: Is that a long tongue?

Could it be the Black and White Impermanence who have come? If so, they should be taking me to the underworld.

Did I do anything heinous while I was alive? Well, I was only sixteen years old. I couldn't have caused much damage, enough to send me to the deepest hell.

The two people slowly walked in, their appearance becoming clearer and clearer.

It turned out to be a man and a woman; the man was wearing a white suit, and the woman was wearing a black suit. The blood-red thing in the middle wasn't a long tongue, but a bright red tie.

"The mortal world is such a hassle; I have to change into a suit every time I come here," the woman in the black suit said.

"Don't worry about it. You can't be too flashy when you come to the human world. It's not like it's your first day on the job. Just change back when you get back," said the man in the white suit. "His name is Peanut? Why did his parents give him such a weird name?"

"It's 'Hana-sei.' It means flowers in full bloom, right?" The woman in the black suit rested her chin on her hand, looking at Hana-sei.

"A grown man, giving himself such an effeminate name."

"Modern parents have strange ideas; even after having children, they remain children themselves. Haven't we seen enough? There's been a case of someone naming their child 'pesticide'?"

The man in the white suit sighed and said, "Times have changed. People in our line of work have to keep adapting."

"Go home as soon as you're done. I still have training to attend. There are 108,000 new ways to die, and I haven't reviewed more than half of the cases. The exam is next month, and if I fail, you'll be doing all the work from now on." The woman in the black suit seemed a little impatient.

“Then we really need to finish this as soon as possible.” The man in the white suit glanced at Hua Sheng. “Your name is Hua Sheng? Hua as in flowers, Sheng as in flourishing?” Hua Sheng tried to speak, but his breath was weak, and he couldn’t open his mouth at all. But in his mind, he heard his own faint voice: “Yes…”

"Sixteen years old, right? An age with so much good time ahead of you." The man in the white suit sighed. "I won't use the cliché of dying young. Dying young is true, but being in your prime is not."

"To make a long story short!" the man in the black suit said to Hana, "Your parents are both dead. To put it bluntly..."

“Let me put it bluntly,” the man in the white suit continued. “We’re talking to a corpse on the beach right now. It’s been dead for a short time, so some of its brain cells might still be alive, and of course, some stem cells. Its nails might even grow for a while.”

Hana's heart was in turmoil. Had I finally died?

"so……"

"So I'm going to go with you..." This voice echoed in Hanamori's mind.

“That’s the usual way,” the man in the white suit replied. “But your parents died before you, so you died as an orphan.”

The man in the black suit added, "Because you are an orphan and died an unnatural death, you have two options on humanitarian grounds."

The man in the white suit scratched his head. "This is really troublesome. I told you long ago that this goes against the laws of nature. Heaven and earth are inherently ruthless; what's the point of this hypocritical humanity?"

“When a new official takes office, he always has to put on a show and introduce some new measures. Didn’t you say times have changed? In the Battle of Changping, Bai Qi buried alive 450,000 Zhao soldiers; when Xiang Yu rebelled against Qin, he also ordered the massacre of 200,000 surrendered Qin soldiers. It’s all about mass deletion, so there’s no room for humanity. Anyway, it’s the cycle of reincarnation, it’s just a matter of being reborn sooner,” the woman in the black suit said. “But now it’s the new century, and human life is becoming more and more valuable. Naturally, we can’t just take it away so easily.”

"In other words, Mr. Hanamori, you have two choices. One is to come with us for a vacation, write a summary statement of the past sixteen years, fill out a bunch of forms, draw lots to see where you'll be reincarnated. However, with the aging population in both developed and developing countries, young people are less willing to have children. If you draw a bad lot, you might end up in Africa or India. But it's hard to say; it depends on your luck. The rules are fair. The other option is to request the use of Article 33 of Section 5 of the Implicit Amendment to the 'Law on the Protection of Minors'."

Hanamori felt the voice in her head was a little hoarse, but she still tried her best to ask, "What is this regulation?"

"The rule is that you can choose to live in Saint Pingning in this lifetime."

"Where? How far is it from my home?"

"It's not far, but in terms of physical distance, it's about 8.4 trillion kilometers," said the man in the white suit.

"An alien planet?" Hua Sheng almost fainted, if he was still breathing.

"No, it's still on Earth. Strictly speaking, it's a place with a vast territory."

Hanamori isn't illiterate. The equator, which circles the Earth, is only 40,000 kilometers long, and the distance from the South Pole to the North Pole is roughly the same. No matter which way you go, it's impossible to travel a distance of hundreds of millions of kilometers. After all, the distance from the Earth to the Sun is only 150 million kilometers, or 8.4 trillion kilometers, which is equivalent to the Earth traveling 28,000 round trips to the Sun.

Such a vast distance, even at the speed of light, would take half a year to travel! Even if he took a rocket, he'd die of old age before reaching even one percent of the distance. What's the point of going to this alien planet? Spending his entire life on the road, it's much safer to be reincarnated sooner.

The man in the black suit scratched his head, straightened his tie, and said, "Of course we're not going by public transport. This place is still on Earth. The so-called physical distance isn't a lie. But this distance was created using magic."

There really is such a thing as magical arts? Doesn't this turn into a fantasy movie?
“If you’re going, we’ll arrange a special channel. If the procedures are quick, you’ll get there after just one checkpoint,” the man in the white suit said.

"What is that place?"

"This matter can't be explained in a short time, and besides, we have other things to finish as soon as possible. In short, if you do well there, study hard, and work hard, you might have the opportunity to meet some well-known deities. For example, the Victorious Fighting Buddha. Of course, he doesn't usually live there; people are only occasionally summoned to meet him."

The Victorious Fighting Buddha—that name sounded familiar. Was it from a game he played as a child? Hua Sheng tried to recall. He tried to turn over and continue thinking, but it felt like all the blood had been drained from his body; even moving a finger was extremely difficult.

"Who is this Victorious Fighting Buddha?"

"That's his title, I think. We rarely call him by his first name, but everyone should know it. Almost every now and then, a movie or TV series depicting his life before he became a Buddha is released, but unfortunately, most of them are bad. It's really confusing!" the man in the white suit said. "But they still make them every year, and generation after generation of stars still play him."

"His previous name. It hasn't been used for over a thousand years," the man in the black suit said. "It was called Wukong, Sun Wukong."

It was as if a thunderclap had exploded in Hanamori's mind. Only one thought remained in her head.

No matter where it is, I absolutely have to go!
The affairs of the world are nothing more than "why to do" and "how to do." How to do it is the "technique"; why to do it is the "principle." When technique and principle are combined, one's power will shake the world.

"The Way of the Arts" tells the story of a young man named Hua Sheng who travels to a celestial realm to learn immortal arts and then travels between the celestial realm and the modern city. When traditional boundaries clash with modern civilization, and when good and evil become blurred and indistinguishable, how will the young man choose?

Welcome everyone to join the author in exploring the world of magic and Tao, contemplating good and evil, and making choices about life and death!
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(End of this chapter)