Chapter 49 Wuji and Taiji

Just as I expected, he didn't turn his head. Keeping his eyes fixed on the book, he said, "My name is Chen Xiaoyao. Please take care of me!"

Alright, I totally surrender. This kid is a complete bookworm, though looking at him, he doesn't seem to have anything in common with a bookworm at all.

Since he was busy with his own business, I ignored him and continued chatting idly with the other classmates.

Two minutes later, the class bell rang, and this time he finally raised his head.

The pot-bellied history teacher walked in carrying a stack of books, and his very first sentence was:

"I heard there is a new student in our class. Which one is he? Give me a look, a little hint, so I can get to know him!"

Turns out this guy hadn't been here long; the teacher hadn't even laid eyes on him yet.

Chen Xiaoyao stood up, didn't say a single word, and just stared fixedly at the history teacher.

We all thought he would give a self-introduction, but apparently, he really just wanted to let the history teacher get a good look at him and nothing more.

The history teacher stared back at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to continue, but Chen Xiaoyao remained unmoved, still standing there.

The atmosphere in the room turned momentarily awkward. Just as the history teacher was about to open his mouth to break the ice, Chen Xiaoyao spoke up.

"Sorry, I was organizing my thoughts just now. Now that they're organized, let me give a self-introduction!"

The history teacher smiled and said, "Why don't you come up to the podium to introduce yourself?"

Without a moment of hesitation, Chen Xiaoyao left his seat and walked up to the podium.

"Hello everyone, my name is Chen Xiaoyao! I hope to become friends with you all. Uh... I can't think of anything else to say!"

Puff...

If I had any saliva in my mouth right now, I definitely would have spit it out. So this kid's "organized thoughts" only amounted to just those few sentences.

The whole class, including the teacher, hadn't expected him to say so little, but out of politeness, we still gave him a round of applause.

After the introduction, the class officially began. This guy listened attentively the entire period, completely ignoring everything going on outside.

When class ended, I didn't leave my seat.

This time, instead of reading, he took the initiative to approach me.

"Are you into Taoist arts?"

I never expected that his opening line when approaching me would be this.

"Why would you think that?" I didn't answer him directly.

"Well..." He pointed his finger at my pants pocket, and that was when I realized the red string in my pocket, along with the ancient copper coins tied to it, had slipped out.

"Oh, I just play around with these things for fun!" I shoved the red thread and copper coins deeper into my pocket. If people knew I messed around with this sort of stuff, they would definitely think I was out of my mind.

"What about your fingers then?"

"Uh..." I waggled my middle fingers. This was hard to explain; I obviously couldn't tell him I got these injuries from punching someone's rectum, especially since both of my hands were messed up. If that were the case, there were only two possibilities: either that person's rear was too hard, or my fingers were too tender.

"Hehe!" I let out a dry laugh. If only one finger had been injured, I could easily have claimed it was an accidental scratch, but now both middle fingers were wrapped up.

"By the way, how did you know those things are for catching ghosts?" I quickly changed the subject—this was my ultimate trick!

"I heard about it." Chen Xiaoyao spoke very little. This was a "major discovery" I made about him.

"I also want to tell you something else," Chen Xiaoyao added. "You have a very heavy yin energy on you!"

"Damn it, *your* body has heavy yin energy. I am a pure-blooded man, full of yang energy! Pure, righteous yang energy!" Actually, I knew what he meant, but I deliberately played dumb and said it with exaggerated agitation.

As soon as I finished, he shut his mouth and said nothing more, turning his head away. A minute later, he spoke again: "You should be careful!"

When he said those words, the entire class inexplicably fell dead silent, so his remark was heard by quite a few people.

It was strange; sometimes the classroom was very noisy, but it often happened that within a single second, it would plunge into absolute silence. That was the exact situation now.

"You should be careful." Chen Xiaoyao's words were caught by many ears, and it sounded a lot like a warning directed at me.

"What's going on? They're already falling out so soon!" "Wang Yu must be bullying the new kid!"

Hearing this, I felt like crying without tears. Do I really look like a bad guy?

Seeing everyone's reaction, I immediately threw my arm around Chen Xiaoyao's shoulder and said, "Got it!"

I admit, when I said that, I looked really smug, so smug and punchable that even I got goosebumps.

Hearing me say that, the crowd naturally went back to their own business and shifted their gazes away from us. I let out a sigh of relief. This kid couldn't even talk properly; next time he said something like that, could he please avoid using such a stiff tone?

Still, the fact that this kid could spot the heavy yin energy on me was somewhat fishy. He definitely wasn't just a simple bookworm.

How could a bookworm understand such things? Don't tell me he read about it in a book—you simply can't find this stuff in books.

After finishing our conversation, Chen Yuming took out a black notebook, and his pen danced across the pages, rustling as he scribbled something down.

"Do you know about *Wuji*?" Chen Xiaoyao turned his head and asked after he finished writing.

"You mean that movie where they defy gravity and their hair floats upward? I've seen it. Total nonsense!"

"Not that *Wuji*. When heaven and earth were first created, everything was in a state of primal chaos, which is *Wuji*."

Hearing this, I felt completely dazed. What the hell did this mean?

Still, I managed to say, "Oh, I see!"

"Then do you know what *Taiji* is?"

"That I know. *Taiji* was created by the legendary Emperor Fuxi, featuring the interlocking yin and yang fish symbols. Am I right?" No matter how dimwitted I was, I had heard of that. *Taiji* was everywhere; old men and women outside were always practicing *Taiji* boxing and stuff.

"Not entirely correct. What Fuxi created was the Eight Trigrams (*Bagua*), not *Taiji*. The union of yin and yang, wherein the dual qi of yin and yang generates all things—that is *Taiji*."

"Oh." I nodded, though I truly had no idea why he was telling me all this!

"Have you ever seen a ghost?" This time he abandoned the topic of *Wuji*, *Taiji*, and the Eight Trigrams, shifting the conversation abruptly to this question.

I remained silent. It seemed he really wasn't just an ordinary bookworm.

"You have very heavy yin energy on you, which makes people feel quite uncomfortable. I originally didn't plan to say anything, but seeing how clueless you seem, I thought I'd warn you!" Clueless? I actually understood a lot, thank you very much!

"I've seen them!" I didn't deny it; I saw ghosts every single day!

"Those things you carry on you—they were taught to you by the Taoist priests outside, right?"

"Y-yeah!" Since that was what he assumed, I just played along with his theory.

"Those things are indeed useful, but their utility is limited. Truly effective items to suppress yin energy are very hard to find!" Chen Xiaoyao said thoughtfully.

"Are you capable of catching ghosts?" I definitely had reason to suspect he was just like me, perhaps even stronger!

"No," he denied it flatly.

I rolled my eyes. If you can't, why do you know so much?

When school let out in the afternoon, I immediately called my grandfather to ask him about things like *Wuji* and *Taiji*. He thought he could bully me for being ignorant, huh? I still had hidden moves I hadn't used yet.

However, Grandpa rattled off a whole bunch of things I couldn't understand at all!

"From *Wuji* comes *Taiji*, from *Taiji* come the Two Modes (*Liangyi*), from the Two Modes come the Three Talents (*Sancai*), from the Three Talents come the Four Symbols (*Sixiang*), from the Four Symbols come the Five Elements (*Wuxing*), from the Five Elements come the Six Boundaries (*Liuwei*), from the Six Boundaries come the Seven Mansions (*Qixiu*), from the Seven Mansions come the Eight Trigrams (*Bagua*), from the Eight Trigrams come the Nine Palaces (*Jiugong*), leading ultimately to the Ten Perfections. When heaven and earth were first created, everything was in primal chaos, which is *Wuji*; the union of yin and yang, wherein the dual qi of yin and yang generates all things, is *Taiji*; the clear qi ascends to become heaven, and the turbid qi descends to become earth, divided into the four directions of east, south, west, and north, each guarded by a divine beast: the Azure Dragon of the East, the White Tiger of the West, the Vermilion Bird of the South, and the Black Tortoise of the North, these are the Four Symbols; the wise Fuxi, discerning the rise and fall of the sun and moon, comprehended the mysteries of heaven and earth and thus created the Eight Trigrams, divided into *Qian*, *Kun*, *Gen*, *Zhen*, *Xun*, *Kan*, *Dui*, and *Li*. From the Eight Trigrams diagram, the Eight Gates are further derived: Rest (*Xiu*), Injury (*Shang*), Life (*Sheng*), Delusion (*Du*), View (*Jing*), Death (*Si*), Surprise (*Jing*), and Open (*Kai*)..."

I lost patience halfway through. What on earth was all this nonsense?

Before I even reached home, Chen Yuming intercepted me halfway.

"Old Wang, what did you go off and take leave for these past few days?" Chen Yuming walked right up and paced alongside me!

"Catching ghosts!" I answered concisely.

"Who are you trying to fool? Oh, by the way, do you know what's going on with Li Yun? She hasn't been to class in ages either!" Chen Yuming said.

"I have no idea!" I would never let anyone know that Li Yun was a ghost; that would be too unfair to her.

However, the dorm head's death wasn't as simple as I thought. At the time, besides Li Yun, there should have been someone else present.

"Right, do you remember last time we went to the dorm to look for the dorm head, and you said something touched your back on the ground floor of the dormitory building?"

!!