Chapter 446 - 10: A Once-in-Sixty-Years Opportunity
Xiao Xian had not experienced kneeling as punishment for five or six years. Hearing Mei Nian suddenly say such a thing, his knees involuntarily bent forty-five degrees, and just as his feet were about to kiss the ground, the consciousness of being a "modern person" violently woke up, reminding him of a saying that goes, "A man’s knees are lined with gold," and another that says, "One may kneel to heaven and earth, and kneel to one’s parents," but there was not a single saying about recklessly kneeling to someone else’s ancestors.
The forty-five-degree bent knee immediately straightened back to one hundred eighty degrees, "That’s not right, even Mr. Bai or Granny Mei never asked me to perform the master’s salute," which implied they should not think about taking advantage of him.
"Bai Juyi accepted you as a disciple shortly before his death, it’s common to have overlooked the kneeling ritual. As for Mei Xiang, before she left, she never anticipated someone like you would appear out of the blue. I ask you to kneel, and naturally, there will be benefits," Mei Nian had just finished speaking when Xiao Xian, from aside, with a "thump", kneeled straight before the position where the genealogy was placed, and vigorously kowtowed three times, until his forehead turned red.
"All right, three kowtows. One for heaven and earth, two for all ancestors, and three for the benefits you mentioned, no more, no less." In the space, Little White Jiao was amazed at his young master’s skill in seizing the right moment.
A muscle on Mei Nian’s cheek twitched suspiciously, but he didn’t pursue further, and kowtowed several times before the spiritual tablets and genealogy.
"Are you curious why, as a woman, I can enter the ancestral hall, and why there are only so few spiritual tablets enshrined here?" Prompted by Mei Nian, Xiao Xian noticed that the stone table used for offerings in the ancestral hall had only two tiers and not many spiritual tablets were on it. Roughly counting, there were about fifty or sixty. Xiao Xian was not aware of Mei Family’s origins, but according to Mei Nian, there should be much more than these spiritual tablets.
"The ancestors of the Mei Family can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn period, from the time when the existence of the ’I Ching’ originated in China, marking the beginning of Mei Family’s path of cultivation." Mei Nian stood up and, facing those dozens of spiritual tablets, slowly recounted the history of the Mei Family.
The Mei Family originally served as imperial gardeners in the court. By the end of the Spring and Autumn period, amid the chaos of war and displacement of the common people, the founding ancestors of the Mei Family’s cultivation, Mei Yang, moved his family of ten into the deep mountains.
The ancestors of the Mei Family cleared the wilderness to become self-sustaining. Under harsh natural conditions, the people of the Mei Family learned to use natural laws to extend their life and eventually even mastered the basic techniques of spirit control. This was the earliest method of cultivation for the Mei Family. From then on, after seven or eight generations, the longest-lived among the Mei Family could reach an age of one hundred and twenty years.
"Counting from the Spring and Autumn period, which is before the common era, it has been over two thousand years of history until now, the Mei Family should have gone through hundreds of generations. It’s indeed strange that there are so few spiritual tablets, are all those enshrined here one in a hundred elites?" Xiao Xian peeked at the spiritual tablets and didn’t see Mei Xiang’s name.
"On the contrary, the spiritual tablets on display are for those of the Mei Family who failed in cultivation. You should notice that Mei Xiang’s name isn’t there. If those truly distinguished in cultivation were to be enshrined, as the foremost in cultivation among the Mei Family for over two millennia, even as a woman, her name would still be placed there to receive offerings from descendants," Mei Nian’s words carried an undertone of emotion, and Xiao Xian couldn’t quite discern whether it was jealousy or melancholy.
"You enshrine those who failed?" Xiao Xian understood the inherent flaws of the populace: the victors are kings, and the vanquished are bandits. It was indeed a rarity that those who failed in cultivation were still offered tributes by later generations.
"The failures of our predecessors serve as lessons for the later generations. Those who fail in cultivation are bound to be dispersed souls and spirits. When descendants draw lessons from the deaths of their predecessors and make trials, the threats lessen. Shouldn’t those who dared to risk their lives to pave the way for future generations be venerated?" Mei Nian’s eyes blazed, his voice raising slightly.
Xiao Xian silently nodded, then shook his head, "What about the other descendants of the Mei Family, surely not..." Xiao Xian didn’t continue, as the path of cultivation ultimately leads to success or failure.
"Thirty-five years ago, after my father Mei Junlin failed in cultivation and exploded, and my mother committed suicide due to grief, Mei Xiang, despite opposition from several elders within the family, disbanded the remaining descendants of the Mei Family." At that time, not long after Mei Xiang and Bai Juyi parted, facing the double bereavement of her parents, she single-handedly fought against three elders of the clan by herself, causing serious injuries to two and damage to the elixir of one, forcing the family to