The Blonde Daoist

December 24, 1998 18:30 The German border town of Amber Bay was blanketed in snow, and the cross of the steeple church glowed in the twilight. Jerry Hoffman stood in front of his bakery, watching his father Carl hang the last string of Nutcracker lights on the door frame. "Jerry, go get Elsa!" Mother Anna smoothed her son's blond hair with floured hands. "This Christmas Eve it's our turn to keep watch together." Across the snow-covered cobblestone streets, Jerry knocked on his neighbor's wooden door. When the door opened, the aroma of cinnamon bread came with warmth, and Elsa's mother, Sophia, was drawing a frosted cross on the gingerbread man with a silver fork. "Look!" Elsa poked her head out of the second floor, waving a homemade crystal ball in her hand. "Grandpa said Jupiter will align with the Big Dipper tonight!" Two blond children ran to the church square to the laughter of their parents. Elsa's red wool scarf snaked through the snow, and Jerry's leather boots crushed thin ice with a crisp sound. 19:45 When the church bell rang, the whole town was already sitting around the huge Christmas tree in the center of the square. The mayor, Mr. Schneider, lit the last candle, and the moment the flames burst out, Jerry suddenly noticed an old man in a gray cloth robe standing on the edge of the crowd. The old man had a bronze compass hanging from his waist, and a wisp of silver whiskers peeked out from under the brim of his hat. When his gaze swept over Jerry, the boy felt his heart skip a beat - his eyes were as clear as amber, reflecting the swirling stars. "That's Mr. White, the new doctor." Elsa followed his gaze. "Mom said he bought an abandoned monastery on the east side of town." Just then, golden snowflakes suddenly fell from the sky. Jerry reached out to catch a piece and found that it was a hexagonal crystal with a tiny gossip pattern engraved in the center. The crowd exclaimed, and Mayor Schneider mumbled to himself, "This is a miracle..." 20:15 Before the Christmas Eve feast, Jerry and Elsa sneaked out of the ballroom. Stepping through the creaking snow, they headed for the Gothic spire at the east end of town, where the medieval monastery now hangs a wooden plaque of the "Apricot Grove". Pushing open the open courtyard door, the two of them were immediately shocked by the scene in front of them: in the center of the snow-covered courtyard, seventy-two bronze pillars were surrounded by a gossip array, and the top of each pillar was inlaid with a crystal ball. Through the stained glass windows, the moonlight projected a pattern of the integration of Taoist Sanqing and Christian Trinity on the snow. An old voice came from above. Daoist Priest Bai Xuan sat at the top of the bell tower, his hand gently waving the dust, and the bronze array pillar suddenly lit up with a faint blue light. Elsa's crystal ball began to heat up, and she subconsciously threw it into the air. The sphere was suspended in the eye of the array, and the wavy patterns of the Rhine appeared on the surface. Jerry took out the pocket watch given by his father, and the alchemy symbol on the dial resonated with the Eight Trigrams Array, and the hands began to rotate in reverse. "Yes, you have the purest spiritual veins of the East and the West flowing in your body." Daoist Priest Bai Xuan floated to the ground, his robe sleeves swept across the eyes of the array, "This is a meeting gift specially prepared for you." 21:00 When the Carr couple discovered that the child was missing, the entire town was in a panic. The search team found two golden light marks at the east end of the town, followed the traces to the monastery, and saw that Daoist Bai Xuan was using acupuncture bronze figures to treat Elsa's frostbitten fingers. "They accidentally ate the Nine Revolutions Golden Elixir I refined." The old man placed the unconscious Jerry on the bamboo couch, "but it was a blessing in disguise and activated the innate Dao body." Karl held his wife's trembling hand and noticed that on the wall behind Daoist Priest Bai Xuan, the bamboo slips of the Tao Te Ching and the sheepskin scroll of the Bible hung side by side, and the totem of the fusion of yin and yang fish and the cross appeared at the intersection of the two. "Thirty years ago, I traveled in Europe and met an alchemist in Prague." "Daoist Bai Xuan poured amber wine for everyone," "He predicted that a pair of blond Taoists would save Eastern and Western civilizations." The blizzard outside the window suddenly stopped, and a blood moon rose over the monastery. Elsa's crystal ball automatically floated into the moonlight, projecting a future scene: two blond figures in Taoist robes stood on the top of the Kunlun Mountains, and at their feet were the Chinese and Western Immortal Palace buildings. 24:00 When the bell rang again on Christmas Eve, Hoffman and Schmidt signed a marriage contract in the monastery. The Tao Te Ching bamboo slip given to Jerry by Daoist Bai Xuan suddenly spoke and read the Gospel of John in German: "In the beginning was the Tao, and the Tao was with God..." Elsa's acupuncture bronze figure oozed blood, drawing a marriage contract intertwined with Nordic runes and Taoist spells on the snow. The four parents witnessed this contract across civilizations under the moonlight, and the sound of the pipe organ came from the church in the distance, which perfectly integrated with the bells of the Taoist temple. "Every 30 years, you will go to the 36 caves of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang to worship." "Daoist Priest Bai Xuan imprinted the map of the Kunlun Secret Realm between the eyebrows of the two children," "There are sealed memories of your previous lives." Two glowing footprints suddenly appeared on the snow, leading everyone to the monastery's cellar. In the swaying torches, they saw a shocking scene: The left wall is engraved with the alchemist's astrological chart, and the right side is the Taoist Zhoutian Star Dou Formation In the central sarcophagus lies a mummy blond corpse, holding a cross in his right hand and a gossip mirror in his left The same prophecy was inscribed on the sarcophagus lid in Latin and ancient Chinese: "When Jupiter and the Big Dipper meet, the twin golden light will reignite the fire of East and West cultivation" 00:30 At the darkest moment before dawn, Jerry and Elsa woke up from their coma at the same time. They found that the birthmark of the Yin-Yang Fish appeared on each other's right wrist, Elsa's crystal ball had the shadow of the Rhine River Muse, and Jerry's pocket watch pointer stopped at 21:07 forever - it was the moment when they activated the Dao Body. "Remember tonight." "Daoist Bai Xuan placed the two ancient books on the children's knees," "The Secret Essentials of Bavarian Alchemy" and "Supreme Induction" should be practiced in contrast. " The eastern sky was white, and sleigh bells sounded from outside the monastery. Mayor Schneider came with the villagers, only to find that the building had disappeared, leaving only a Christmas tree decorated with robes and crosses. "Daddy, are we dreaming?" Elsa asked, rubbing her eyes. Karl looked at the birthmark on his son's wrist and at the same mark on his wife. Suddenly, he remembered his father's dying words: "In the blood of the Hoffman family, the curse of Wizard Merlin flows..." At this moment, in the 36 caves of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, the Quan Zhen Daoist couple on the mural suddenly opened his eyes and smiled. In the lower right corner of the mural, a new line of inscriptions appeared: "Western Taoism restarts, waiting for the blond golden fairy to return"