Chapter 3: Physiognomy
Chapter 3: Physiognomy
“What is this thing?”
After feeling a wave of dizziness in his head, Ye Tian discovered that something like a palm-sized tortoise shell seemed to have appeared in his mind. It was densely engraved with various patterns.
When Ye Tian looked closely, the tortoise shell suddenly disappeared. A line of seal script appeared before his eyes. However, this didn’t stump Ye Tian. He had been learning seal script with the Old Taoist since he was five years old.
“Li Shanyuan, born in Huayin, Shaanxi in the year 1880. Three brothers, four sisters. Passed the county-level imperial examination in 1896 during the late Qing Dynasty. Disciple of the 49th generation inheritor of the Hemp Robe Physiognomy.”
Looking at these words that had inexplicably appeared in his mind, Ye Tian was dumbfounded. He had only glanced at the Old Taoist Priest, but it seemed he now knew many things?
Even if Ye Tian was slow-witted, he knew this information must be related to the Old Taoist Priest. However, whether it was true or false, Ye Tian had no way of telling.
“An illusion, it must be an illusion. How does that old guy look anywhere close to over a hundred years old?”
Although Ye Tian was mischievous, his academic performance was quite good. Such simple arithmetic was naturally easy for him. Born in 1880, wouldn’t that make him 106 years old by now? Ye Tian would never believe, even if beaten to death, that this shameless old man before him could be that old.
“Hmm? Why did you stop?” The Old Taoist, who had been listening to Ye Tian recite the scriptures with his eyes closed, swaying his head, heard the voice stop and opened his eyes dissatisfied.
Ye Tian hadn’t yet snapped out of his daze. He found a random excuse to parry: “Ahem, Master, I could recite all this by heart when I was five. Do we really have to keep reciting it?”
“You are too young. I still cannot teach you the deeper aspects, fearing it might violate the natural order. These are the basics; you must lay a solid foundation.”
Hearing Ye Tian’s words, the Old Taoist Priest habitually reached out his right hand, wanting to knock Ye Tian on the head. But seeing his injuries, he reluctantly pulled it back.
Although Ye Tian was young, he was quite clever. He didn’t tell the Old Taoist about the information in his mind. Instead, he said: “Master, I’ve been learning from you for several years now. How about I tell your fortune today?”
“You?”
The Old Taoist turned his head and glanced sideways at Ye Tian. “You haven’t even learned to walk properly, yet you’re thinking about running. How do you want to do it? By looking at palm lines or facial features?”
The Old Taoist asked this because he had only taught Ye Tian these superficial things. Deeper aspects like bone structure, complexion, and posture were not suitable for someone Ye Tian’s age to learn yet.
“By looking at facial features.”
Ye Tian sat up straight and looked at the Old Taoist’s face. “Master, your Upper Region – from the hairline on the forehead to the eyebrows – is high, long, full, and prominent. Square and broad. You must have been extraordinarily successful in your youth, right?”
“Hey, you kid actually know a bit about this?”
Hearing this, the Old Taoist laughed. “Your master passed the county exam at sixteen. Everyone for miles around knew about it. Huh? I never told you about this, did I? Did you really see this yourself?”
Although the Old Taoist felt some doubt in his heart, he didn’t make a big deal of it. The Hemp Robe Physiognomy method he learned was originally the orthodox lineage of this school. It wasn’t rare for Ye Tian to glean some clues from his “Upper Region.”
“Holy cow, it’s true?”
The Old Taoist didn’t mind, but the shock in Ye Tian’s heart was beyond words. So this old guy really did pass the county exam? Then… then the information that appeared in his mind was also true?
Ye Tian took a deep breath and put on the airs of a little fortune-teller. “Of course I saw it myself, Master. Your eyebrows are slender, light-colored yet unbroken. That’s precisely the sign of the ‘Oath of the Peach Garden’ sworn brotherhood. You should have three brothers. There are two small moles at the corner of your right eye, which signify ‘paired phoenixes,’ meaning four sisters. Adding them up makes seven, right?”
The earlier statement was more general. This time Ye Tian was more precise, wanting to see the Old Taoist Priest’s reaction. If he got this right, it would prove he definitely wasn’t hallucinating.
“Oh, right, Master. I see your glabella is somewhat dark. It’s possible you might meet with bloodshed misfortune today.”
This last sentence wasn’t something Ye Tian got from the information in his mind. He truly saw the Old Taoist’s glabella area was somewhat obscure, so he casually mentioned it.
Who would have thought that before Ye Tian’s words even finished, there was a loud clatter in his ears. The Old Taoist, who had been sitting peacefully on his chair, leaning back on its two rear legs and swaying slightly, stiffened violently upon hearing Ye Tian’s words. He and the chair together toppled backward.
The place where the two were sitting was right at the entrance to the front hall. The Old Taoist Priest’s fall wasn’t the main issue, but the back of his head hit the hall’s threshold. It was a genuine, solid blue stone threshold.
By the time the Old Taoist Priest clambered up from the ground, his wooden hairpin had fallen out, his hair was disheveled, and his head was covered in blood. He didn’t look much better than Ye Tian had yesterday. It exactly matched Ye Tian’s earlier words about bloodshed misfortune.
But the Old Taoist obviously didn’t pay much mind to this minor injury. Instead, he grabbed Ye Tian, who was sitting beside him watching with wide-eyed shock. “You brat, you… was what you just said truly deduced by yourself?”
To deduce a person’s fortune, misfortune, nobility, baseness, early death, or longevity from facial features was relatively easier. But to precisely calculate the number of someone’s siblings? Even the Old Taoist himself wasn’t fully capable of that.
You must know, although the Old Taoist Priest came from the Hemp Robe Lineage and indeed possessed some genuine learning, after a thousand years of continuous warfare, the Ancestral Master’s physiognomy heritage passed down to the present amounted to only three or four parts out of ten. However, the life-nurturing arts were completely preserved.
When the Old Taoist Priest wandered the Jianghu, he more often used some Jianghu techniques. These were the four-character true formula: “Feel Out,” “Listen,” “Fish For,” and “Scare.”
“Feel Out” meant thoroughly investigating the area where one planned to set up a fortune-telling stall beforehand. Understanding the basic characteristics of people of different ages, whether officials or commoners lived nearby—this was crucial.
“Listen” meant finding ways to get the fortune-seeker to speak first and talk more, figuring out their worries before prescribing the right remedy. “Fish For” meant using ambiguous words to extract the truth from the other party. Once clues were heard from their words, one would immediately follow up.
As for “Scare,” that meant fabricating some ghost stories about offending deities to frighten the other party. When they were scared out of their wits, they would naturally reveal the information one wanted to know.
Once these four-character true formulas were employed, combined with the Old Taoist Priest’s own genuine skills, they earned him the title of “Living Immortal” in many places.
Four or five decades ago, during the Japanese Invasion of China, Li Shanyuan came to Maoshan to avoid the war. Unexpectedly, he still couldn’t escape it. Later, he returned to Shaanxi and settled down.
If he hadn’t been labeled as an “ox-ghost snake-spirit” from the very beginning of the turmoil, belonging to the category of people who must be resolutely overthrown, the old fellow might not have had to hide here again. Who knows where he might be living a carefree life now.
But as the direct-line inheritor of the Hemp Robe Lineage, the Old Taoist Priest was confident that in the field of physiognomy, absolutely no one in the country could surpass him. Having lived over a hundred years, he truly had never encountered anyone more skilled.
To determine someone’s siblings, the Old Taoist could also make a pretty accurate guess from their facial features. But he was a man who had lived over a hundred years, with rich life experience and physiognomy practice.
When he was Ye Tian’s age, the old fellow was still in a village school, swaying his head and reciting the “Three Character Classic.” That’s why hearing Ye Tian’s words made him lose his composure. Could this little kid be possessed by the Founding Patriarch?
“Master, I saw that you would have bloodshed misfortune. But… about your brothers and sisters… ahem, I heard that from your sleep-talking.”
Seeing the Old Taoist Priest so flustered, Ye Tian felt a bit scared. He vaguely sensed that the information displayed in his mind was something extraordinary. He didn’t know if it was good or bad, and instinctively didn’t tell the truth.
“Sleep-talking? No wonder. I was just thinking how could you little brat calculate so accurately?”
Hearing Ye Tian’s words, the Old Taoist let out a long sigh of relief. If Ye Tian had truly calculated that, he wouldn’t be a genius, but a monster.
After cleaning the wound on his head, the Old Taoist said, “You kid have already learned to observe people’s expressions. Consider yourself as having entered the door of this profession. Let me tell you about our Hemp Robe Lineage.”
The main reason the Old Taoist Priest took Ye Tian as a disciple was because he was too bored in the deep mountains and remote areas, wanting someone to talk to and relieve the boredom. Although he taught Ye Tian many skills and took him all over Maoshan to observe Feng Shui and Earth Qi, he hadn’t said much about his own heritage and origins.
Now, seeing Ye Tian so clever, the Old Taoist’s interest was piqued. He was also over a hundred years old; who knows when he might kick the bucket. The Ancestral Master’s legacy still needed to be passed down.
“The Founding Patriarch of our Hemp Robe Lineage is the Hemp Garment Daoist. Passing it down to me, it’s already the fiftieth generation. Although much of the heritage has been lost, in the fields of physiognomy and Fengshui Geomancy, no one in the country can surpass us…”
“Master, I already know all this. Tell me something I don’t know.” The Old Taoist hadn’t finished when Ye Tian interrupted him. He had heard this kind of self-praising talk countless times.
“Brat, in our line of work, one should speak less and observe more. You’re too impulsive!”
The Old Taoist glared at Ye Tian disapprovingly, then continued: “Not counting you, I’ve taken two disciples in total. Your eldest senior brother is called Gou Xinjia. In ’49, he followed his family to Taiwan. Now there’s no news of him either. Your second senior brother is called Zuo Jiajun. He should be around fifty this year? He studied with me the longest. But his family background wasn’t good. Around ’68, he ran off to Hong Kong. Except for you, brat, I haven’t taught them my life-nurturing arts. But neither of them are people with shallow fortune. You might encounter them in the future.”
Saying this, the Old Taoist Priest also sighed with emotion. Although he had weathered a century of storms and was accustomed to the separations and reunions, life and death of the human world, these two disciples were raised by his own hands. Thinking of them still brought him deep feelings.
“Master, you have overseas connections? If you find your two senior brothers, couldn’t you go out and enjoy a comfortable life?”
Hearing the Old Taoist Priest’s words, Ye Tian exclaimed with exaggerated surprise. Things weren’t like ten years ago anymore. Back then, families with overseas connections tried their best to hide them, fearing being labeled as spies.
Nowadays, if someone had overseas relations, it was something to be envied.
One of Ye Tian’s classmates had a grand-uncle who came back from the United States to visit. He gave the kid a digital watch. That little guy was so delighted for a week he was practically bubbling with snot. When he walked, he almost wanted to bandage his hand to hang it in front of his chest.
“Find them? Even if I found them, I wouldn’t go out. Here the mountains are clear and the waters are beautiful. I’ll spend my remaining years here.”
Hearing this, the Old Taoist Priest smiled and shook his head. His life had almost witnessed all the major events of modern China. He had long seen through worldly affairs. Wealth and glory really held no attraction for a hundred-year-old man.
Suddenly remembering something, the Old Taoist Priest stood up. “Alright, we can talk about this more later. It’s time to take you down the mountain to broaden your horizons. Go, fetch the Taoist robe from the box in the room…”