DAO

The fate of Li-Bang was decided. Such an order was received by Dara, from Sir Pay! Even though it was his own nephew! An uncle, an influential nobleman under the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, wanted his nephew to be a hardened life, having passed the fire, water and copper pipes (so that he experienced life and gained his experience). He became a veteran, and was not just a general, having received a position, writing only his theories, not supported by practice. It was a cruel lesson! And honestly, Sir Pei did not want his nephew to be plunged into political intrigues at the emperor's court. The cunning officials, already decided how the young general would return from the trip, they wanted to impose on him two empress maids of honor. They were her relatives. Thus, if Sir Pei were forced to join the Empress's faction, he would be loyal to the emperor.

To refuse the empress, it was fraught with making enemies and problems at court. But sacrificing a nephew was easier. With him, probably, nothing would be radiated in 5-10 years of disgrace. And the empress herself would have fallen off from her nephew if he had not completed the task and would have been exiled as a simple commander of a distant and forgotten fort in the very center of the impassable Lob Nor desert. Who will go there after him? From the luxurious life of the capital? There were no such idiots in the Tang empire!

Well, if he dies, what can I do here ?! Sir Pay still had 10 nephews and five nieces. But they were not at court. And the cunning uncle was in no hurry to introduce them into this circle.

If Li-Ban had survived this, he could have come up for a more subtle political game. The experience was needed, and it was possible to get it only after passing the severity of the path.

Therefore, Sir Pei decided to go cruel but at the same time a relatively painless path. Since Sir Pei created the difficulties himself. He planned, and he himself would punish him by sending him to a distant, waterless desert, and caravans rarely went there. Li-Ban, according to his plan, should have been sent by the commander of a dilapidated fort with a staff of 100 people. Nomads attacked occasionally, caravans took place three times a year. Describing this place was just a "hole"! That is, there was nothing, neither greenery, nor good water, not people, not animals, not birds. Although once in 5 years there were clashes with robbers and sometimes nomads when ambassadors from other empires or kingdoms returned through the desert.

Li-Ban was standing in a cave, all of it was covered with transparent crystals. In the center of the cave, a large purple stone was sunk on the floor.

The blacksmith suggested Li-Ban touch the stone with his palm. This was the last test.

The stone could show what is hidden inside a person, his innermost thoughts, desires, his sleepy subconscious. The stone activated the subconscious, all hidden thoughts became known. The crystals reflected the future of someone who touched the stone. If there were dark sides, then the crystals turned black, if there were just thoughts to make money, but did not help people, the crystals turned red. Only people who were pure inside, their thoughts and ideas, then the crystals began to glow with white light!

A person then received a unique activation code for all his abilities, he could combine flattery, courage, wisdom, treachery, cunning, courage, dexterity, knowledge of languages, strategy, and tactics. And the result was unexpected solutions to difficult situations. Such a person could look at problems from different angles of view and find an original solution that was never thought up by anyone.

The stone flashed with unexpected fire. It was neither black nor red, nor even white. It was a light green color! A blacksmith himself was taken aback and did not even know what this color means?

A clue appeared in the crystals, Li-Ban, was surprised to see himself kneeling before the angry Prime Minister of the Tang Empire. He saw his relatives and friends, seeing him run across the street, with his eyes down to the ground. He saw how he was expelled from the academy, taken away the rank of general, deprived of orders, lands, horses. As a father looks at him contemptuously and turns away, and as his mother wipes his eyes furtively, she does not want her beloved son to be sent to nowhere. He saw his uncle rubbing his hands. How Dara laughs and Dilshod stands beside him with a shy smile.

Li-Ban, saw himself in old armor, in a broken fort, with his wretched and crippled subordinates, they drink the yellowish, salty and bitter water.

Li-Ban saw himself as a bleached gray-haired woman, sitting in a mountain valley, in his house, at the top of the "Seven Wise Men" peak in the mountains of Light. Beside him sat Dara and Dilshodu. A little distance Daresh. The clouds. They all became cultivators. They were close to understanding the path of the Tao.

Apparently a greenish color, the color of jade, meant that Li-Ban would be a cultivator walking the bright path of the Tao, but he will first have to go through many more new challenges and difficulties of the path.