“When did it start?”

Wei Mingyan raised his left hand and looked at the bluish veins on his wrist. Blood was flowing in the veins, but his various indicators were much worse than what should be normal.

“It was during my great-grandfather’s generation. He had many children, and he and his descendants, including me, could not escape this curse.”

In an effort to save themselves, the his clan have sought methods from the various Daoist sects and sent people to search far and wide for medicine. They tried countless methods, but none of them lived past forty.

“By the way,” Wei Mingyan lowered his eyes and said, “my father had always been looking for a solution. When I was a child, he once told me that he has found a way and that he would definitely be able to save our people. But he never came back.

“We couldn’t even find his remains, so we don’t know if he lived past forty.”

His father said he would be returning with good news, and he was overjoyed. However, his father never came back, and he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, utterly disappointed once again.

Wei Mingyan snapped out of his thoughts, raised his head, looked out the carved window, and said absentmindedly, “I’ve also thought about whether I would have had this disease if my father hadn’t had children. But what’s done is done, and no one can change it.”

During his great-grandfather’s generation, this matter has not yet been discovered. He died at the age of forty, and everyone only felt regret that he died so young and did not think much about it.

It wasn’t until decades later that the clansmen finally discovered the problem.

Many members of the clan choose not to have any children in order to prevent the tragedy from continuing.

However, his father hadn’t known this at the time, and only realized it after he was already born.

He didn’t actually want to be born, to live day after day in desperation, his entire family facing death.

In his life plan, there were three things he never intended to have: dating, marriage, or having children. He already had enough trouble on his plate and didn’t want to hold others back.

Lin Chuji felt extremely distressed upon hearing this. He and this person had grown up together since childhood. He was always lively and energetic, while the other person was sickly.

When he was a child, he didn’t know about the other person’s situation and would joke around with him all the time, asking him why his health was so poor. Wei Mingyan wouldn’t answer, and if he got impatient, he would just ignore him.

Only after growing up did he realize how terrible his family’s curse was, and he immediately felt he had spoken out of turn. They were both in the prime of their lives, while the other had already been sentenced to death.

He couldn’t bear it, so he turned to look at An Rugu and asked, “Can his hereditary disease be cured? His family is very wealthy, so payment is not a problem.”

The Wei family was currently engaged in the pharmaceutical industry, developing new drugs, and was extremely wealthy. They have an unwritten reward known within the Daoist sects: whoever solved the Wei family’s genetic disease would receive half of their entire fortune.

That’s hundreds of millions.

An Rugu examined him for a while but didn’t see any sign of a curse on him. She slowly shook her head and said, “You’re not cursed.”

Just as the other two were wondering what was going on, Celestial Master Zhang came out with a group of his disciples.

They had just finished reciting scriptures. They had changed out of their ceremonial robes but still carried a faint scent of incense.

Celestial Master Zhang bowed to everyone, saying, “Compassion be unto you, compassion.”

The group stopped talking, stood up, and returned the greeting with clasped hands, saying, “Master, compassion!”

“Brother, compassion!”

“May the Dao endure forever!”

“Blessings arise from the boundless Heavenly Venerable.”

Daoists greet each other with phrases like ‘Blessings from the Boundless Heavenly Venerable’ or “Boundless Heavenly Venerable grant longevity and happiness.”

Yet in some films and television dramas, it is simplified to ‘Boundless Heavenly Venerable’, which was very awkward phrasing.

If you say ‘Boundless Heavenly Venerable’ it could mean ‘the Boundless Heavenly Venerable who brings compassion’, or the ‘Boundless Heavenly Venerable who blesses life.’ 

If you’re just chanting ‘Boundless Heavenly Venerable’, who exactly were you calling upon and for what?

Actually, this term originated as a humorous expression used by celebrities in the entertainment industry.

Buddhist disciples greet each other with ‘Amitabha Buddha’ or literally ‘Boundless Light Buddha’. Later, a storyteller claimed that Daoist disciples also greet each other by addressing each other as “Amitabha (Boundless Light) Buddha,” which was clearly nonsense.

Then later, when storytelling became popular, a well-known Daoist priest had to tell the storytellers that Daoist disciples do not call themselves Buddhas. The storytellers then asked the Daoist priest to come up with a catchy phrase similar to ‘Amitabha (Boundless Light) Buddha’.

The Daoist priest thought that storytelling was an art form and had nothing to do with actual Daoism, so he could only say, “Daoists venerate gods and call them Heavenly Venerables.”

The storytellers then changed ‘Amitabha (Boundless Light) Buddha’ to ‘Boundless Heavenly Venerable’, a joking nickname that only circulates within the entertainment industry.

Who knew that the old Daoist priests would pass away one after another, and many of their ideas would be rapidly updated. The playful phrase ‘Boundless Heavenly Venerable’, which originated in the entertainment industry, gradually spread to the inner circle.

But people who adhere to tradition still wouldn’t say that.

When they greet each other, they call out the other person’s surname and say ‘Compassion, compassion’, which was very similar to the Buddhist greeting ‘Excellent, excellent’. If they don’t know the surname or identity, they can simply say ‘Friend, compassion.’

Celestial Master Zhang stroked his beard and said with a smile, “Today is the once-in-a-decade grand gathering of the Celestial Master Mansion. Thank you all for attending. 

“In previous years, at this time, we sat and discussed the Dao, communicating with heaven and earth, and gained a lot. I hope everyone will have some insights this year as well.”

Everyone agreed in their hearts. The Celestial Masters Mansion has accumulated great prestige, and countless practitioners of the Dao came here every year, truly living up to the name ‘grand gathering’.

When three people walk together, one of them must surely be my teacher¹.

They chatted with others for a while and gained a lot of insights.

After exchanging pleasantries with everyone for a while, Celestial Master Zhang approached An Rugu and said, “Young friend, I’ve kept you waiting.”

An Rugu replied, “I’ve just arrived too.”

Celestial Master Zhang turned to look at Lin Chuji and Wei Mingyan, and said, “Oh, Wei family’s boy, I remember you. How is your uncle doing?”

Wei Mingyan’s uncle was now the person in charge of the Wei family. He believed the curse on him was most likely a result of mystical practice, so he never gave up maintaining his connections within the mystical community. 

For example, he helped Wei Mingyan befriend the Lin family, a prominent family of feng shui masters, and also made him acquainted with Celestial Master Zhang.

Wei Mingyan quickly bowed to him, saying, “Uncle is in good health.”

Celestial Master Zhang glanced at Wei Mingyan seemingly casually, but said nothing more.

He could fight for three days and three nights without getting tired, but everyone has their own expertise, and breaking curses was not his forte.

I Livestream Divination to the World translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: OMG this is too much untranslatable phrases with deep religious meanings 😭

What that section basically means is that TV and films use a phrase (無量天尊 Wuliang Tianzun) that is made up and not a true Daoist greeting. 

‘Tianzun’ or ‘Heavenly Venerable’ is an honorary title for a deity—it doesn’t refer to a specific god. So it’s quite awkward to greet people with ‘Boundless Heavenly Venerable (be unto you)’ because then who exactly are you invoking and for what purpose?

It’s supposedly a mirror of the phrase ‘Amitabha (lit. Boundless Light) Buddha’ which is used by Buddhists. Storytellers began using ‘Boundless Heavenly Venerable’ as greeting for Daoists—which is not correct.

On the other hand, 慈悲 ‘Compassion (be unto you)’ as a Daoist greeting is accurate. Compassion is a core concept in Daoism.

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FOOTNOTE:

1. ‘When three people walk together, one of them must surely be my teacher’. This is from the Analects of Confucius. It means there is something to learn from everyone. ‘Three’ here is not a literal number but refers to the people around you in general. ↩︎