Chapter 199: 24 Years in a Flicker

Chapter 199: 24 Years in a Flicker

Chapter 199: Twenty-four years in the blink of an eye (asking for monthly tickets~)

The 448th year of the Ming Dynasty, February 22, Qingming Festival.

The territory of Yuzhang is Guangxin Prefecture.

It is not yet dawn, but the Taoist holy land of Yuxiu Mountain is destined to be extremely lively today.

No one knew where so many people came from. It was hard to find a house in Zhangxiang Town at the foot of the mountain. Many people parked their carriages on the stone road in the town and lived in the carriages. Some people who were in financial difficulties wrapped themselves in mats and set up tents to sit on the ground.

Especially in Qingwa Lane, the seats at the foot of the wall were packed.

As for those who arrived late, they could only camp outside the town.

The moonlight was bright, illuminating everyone's face, and no one was truly asleep.

It was probably the hour of Yin, the sky was dark blue, and these people began to gather their spirits and prepare to set off.

Qingwa Lane is the palace of gods, so the owner here is naturally very generous. He opens the door early in the morning to serve food so that everyone can fill their stomachs before leaving.

No matter they were princes or fishermen, farmers, woodcutters or hunters, they all accepted the offer with numerous thanks.

After filling their stomachs and wiping their hands, and waiting for the host's consent, everyone went to touch the house numbers hanging under the eaves of each house in Qingwa Lane in an orderly manner. This was a great luck sign.

As for the first house in the alley with the doorplate "Yuncheng Fachen", no one dared to touch it, and they all just looked at it with eager eyes.

"Dad, higher."

A child who looked only eight or nine years old, with a chubby face, was picked up by a hunter and reached out to touch the doorplate.

The hunter responded and stood on tiptoe.

"I've touched it, I've touched it, Dad, please put me down."

The child touched the door number and smiled with satisfaction.

However, the hunter did not put the child down. He held the child in his arms and went to the next house.

"Dad, put me down, let's go over there."

The hunter didn't listen, and only said, "Carry it and walk fast, and touch more houses."

The hunter held the child in his arms and squeezed through the crowd in the alley, his steps steady.

Then, he whispered,
"Daddy, hold me more. If I really become an immortal, I won't be able to hold me anymore."

"Dad, what did you say?"

"No."

The hunter shook his head and walked a little faster.

When it was dawn, everyone started walking towards Yuxiu Mountain. The hunter father and son also drew all seventeen house numbers, followed the main group and left the town.

Yuxiu Mountain is closed today. There is heavy fog on the southern slope of the mountain. People from all over the place gathered at the foot of the mountain and waited on the north bank of Jinsha River. There were probably tens of thousands of people watching the fun.

The hunter and his son got up early and walked fast. They were crowded near the mountain path when they suddenly heard a commotion coming from the front.

"what happened?"

The hunter asked repeatedly.

The child had sharp ears and could hear the noise coming from the front clearly.

"Everyone is calling him the temple master, Taoist Zhenwei, living god, etc."

The hunter said "oh", he had never heard of it, he was usually busy hunting and collecting herbs, he had no time to meditate and seek the truth. For the people living in the mountains, the most they did was to worship in front of the land shrine under the big tree at the entrance of the village during festivals.

"Is that the living immortal accepting a disciple?"

he asks.

The child listened again, but couldn't make out anything.

"There are too many people, so let the children go up the stairs. It's foggy this morning, so be careful where you step. Those who are sending you off should not follow, but stay where you are."

At this time, a clear little girl's voice rang in everyone's ears. The voice was not loud, but it was not affected by the surrounding noise at all, and it rang clearly in everyone's ears.

This is a magical method!

As parents, they are naturally reluctant to let him go, but becoming an immortal is a chance that one would not have in several lifetimes. It has been twenty-four years since the last time the Sanqing Immortal Mountain accepted disciples.

On that occasion, only Cheng Shenxian from Zhangxiang Town was captured. People in Zhangxiang Town said that 24 years had passed, and Cheng Shenxian had not changed at all.

The gods' faces remain unchanged, but Zhangxiang Town has undergone tremendous changes. The town still makes incense, but the townspeople no longer make a living from it. Now they are all wealthy people who call it cultivating their sentiments. Of course, this does not prevent the incense in Zhangxiang Town from becoming more and more expensive, and even Nanchang Prefecture and Jinling Imperial Capital specifically request the incense produced here.

The main source of income for the townspeople is rent. In recent years, the Yulin Temple has become more and more popular. The old immortal Zhenwei has lived to be a centenarian. He is very skilled in Taoism and his amulets are hard to come by. Many people come to burn incense and worship, including royal relatives, princes, and generals.

The more important reason why Yulin Temple is so popular is naturally the Sanqing Immortal Mountain behind it.

Every few years or even hundreds of years, the Three Pure Ones Mountain would send a decree to Yulin Temple, asking them to plan to find a spiritual boy to enter the mountain to take the legal examination. After passing the examination, the boy could stay in the mountain and become a god.

The most recent time was twenty-four years ago, when more than a hundred people went in, leaving only Cheng Shenxian alone. But the rest who were sent back to the mortal world all described the charm of the fairy mountain to outsiders in vivid detail.

Things like flying on clouds, giant snakes as big as mountains, colorful sea of ​​clouds, and magical techniques such as soul-leaving the body.

The examinations for recruiting disciples at Mount Sanqing have never ceased, and naturally, such legends about immortals have never ceased, so the popularity of Yulin Temple has become increasingly prosperous.

Most people who come to Yulin Temple choose to rest in Zhangxiang Town at the foot of the mountain. Some wealthy nobles who are devoted to Taoism and immortality often stay there for more than half a year. No one in Zhangxiang Town sells their ancestral home, and no one dares to force them to do so, so everyone who comes here has to pay rent.

The people of Zhangxiang Town have no worries about wealth and prosperity. Everyone lives a long and healthy life and ages slower than other people. They don’t suffer from any disasters or diseases on a daily basis. Everyone says that this is because they have been blessed by the immortal Cheng.

Therefore, if one person attains enlightenment and becomes immortal, his family and friends will also prosper. This is the clear proof.

So, twenty-three years later, at the end of last year, when the news came out again from Yulin Temple that it was going to summon disciples to take the Dharma examination, the entire Guangxin Prefecture and even the Yuzhang and Qingzhou areas were in an uproar.

What makes people most ecstatic is that the requirement for entering the mountain this time, that one must be under 16 years old, has not changed. However, in addition to possessing a pure spiritual energy, those who are excellent in painting, music, divine memory, and calmness can also enter the mountain to take the legal examination.

As a result, countless families flocked there.

The hunter Lin family father and son live in a remote area. They heard the news from a Taoist priest who came to the village to cure illnesses and preach half a month ago. Being a hard-working hunter naturally has nothing to do with painting, music, and divine memory. The first two are only accessible to rich people, and those who possess the ability of divine memory will naturally go to study and become officials, and will not make a living in the mountains.

I heard from the Taoist priest that not being frightened means that the child is brave and has a stable soul, so he will not be frightened from a young age and will not easily have dreams or cry.

When Father Lin heard this, his child didn't seem surprised at all!

So under the persuasion of the Taoist missionary, the father and son of the Lin family hurried all the way to Zhangxiang Town.

So at this moment, no matter how reluctant these parents, including Mr. Lin, had to let go of their children, and urged them to walk into the fog and climb the stairs with tears in their eyes.

However, there are also many wealthy and knowledgeable people who are curious. Things like pure spiritual energy are easy to distinguish if they exist or not. But how can we distinguish the four things like painting, music, divine memory and non-disturbing?
There were as many as four to five thousand children climbing up the mountain steps, and this was the result of a preliminary screening by the Taoists of Guangxin Prefecture.

Some children can't even hold a pen steadily, and their handwriting is so awful that it's like a ghost drawing. Their parents insist that their paintings are good and have to be sent to gods to be seen, which gives the Taoists a headache.

The main reason is that the conditions this time are too broad, so even though the Taoists have screened again and again, there are still so many children who can reach the foot of the mountain.

Lin Fengnian also walked into the white fog.

The fog was so thick that he couldn't see anything clearly. He could only see two or three steps under his feet. Lin Fengnian thought about it and felt that he had never seen such thick fog before.

It is indeed a fairy mountain!
Lin Fengnian wanted to become an immortal. He heard that immortals could control the clouds and rain. If he became an immortal, he could have sunshine when he wanted it to be sunny and rain when he wanted it to rain. The crops would be good, and he could fulfill his parents and fellow villagers' wish of a good harvest every year.

He heard from others that in order to enter the Immortal Mountain and take the test, one had to first enter the Taoist temple on this mountain. The Taoist temple was at the end of this mountain path. If one could not even go up this mountain path, how could one talk of becoming an immortal or having a good harvest?
So this chubby kid put all his strength into walking up quickly.

————The Guanqian Square, which used to be bustling with people, is now empty.
Taoist Zhenwei sat on the edge of the cliff outside the square, stroking his beard and laughing.

A little girl was serving behind him, massaging the old Taoist's shoulders.

The girl looked about twelve years old, wearing colorful clothes, with big eyes, a round face, and dazzling golden hair, like fireworks, but her hair was tied into two buns, which offset the dazzling effect and made her look more bright and lovely.

“It seems just like those days, just like those days!”

The old Taoist looked at the grand scene at the foot of the mountain and laughed out loud.

The girl asked, "Did the master see any difference between the master and other people?"

The old Taoist nodded slowly, "Of course, Yunqi is so handsome. Among the group of people at that time, Yunqi was a little older, so he really stood out from the crowd. When he met the immortals in the mountains, he was neither humble nor arrogant. The old Taoist saw it at that time, and it had to be him!"

The girl covered her mouth and laughed secretly.

"Nannan, how many people do you think would walk up this mountain path?"

The old abbot asked.

"The master wants to recruit more disciples, so he made such a big fuss. He wants to have more than five disciples, but according to Nannan, two or three would be good enough."

"Oh? Why is that?"

The little girl narrowed her eyes and smiled, "The master wants to recruit more people, and he made the illusion array so difficult, how can we fulfill his wish?"

The old abbot laughed when he heard this.

The two, like a grandfather and grandson, chatted while waiting for the right person to come up the stairs, and the girl always made the old man laugh.

After a while, a gust of wind suddenly blew past the two of them. When the wind died down, a person was revealed.

This is a young man who looks to be in his early twenties. He is dressed in white, has thick eyebrows, big eyes, a dragon forehead and a big nose. He is very handsome.

The girl was not even as tall as the young man's chest, but when she saw him, she jumped up and grabbed his ears.

"Bai Longnai! The master is going to open a school to recruit disciples. Why did you come back so late? Does it take you a long time to go to Xiangxi and back?"

The young man quickly bent down and begged for mercy, "I saw my big brother, and he held me back and wouldn't let me go."

The girl thought that since there were outsiders around, she should give him some face. She snorted and let go of his hand.

The young man glanced into the white fog and saw that the children were trapped in the illusion and most of them were still standing at the starting point of the mountain trail. He knew that he was not too late.

The old master had been arranging for these two children to recruit disciples in recent months, so he was naturally familiar with them. So he asked him the same question again.
"Xiao Nai, how many people do you think will come here?"

"I think one or two would be nice."

"Oh? Why?"

The young man sniffed habitually, "Master made the formation too difficult."

He gave the same answer as the girl.

"what?"

But just after he finished speaking, he let out a light exclamation.

"what happened?"

The girl asked repeatedly.

"Look inside the formation, there's someone moving very fast!"

Bai Long said.

The girl looked in the direction of the young man's finger, a golden light flashed in her eyes, and then a hint of surprise appeared on her face.
"It was very fast. He didn't seem to be affected by the magic circle at all."

Hearing what the two said, the old monk was extremely curious, but he couldn't see anything with his mortal eyes, so he had to pretend to be indifferent and calm.

"Why, he's come all the way up here!"

The girl said in surprise.

Then, the old abbot saw a chubby kid walking out of the white fog. This kid was in very good health. He walked all the way up such a long mountain path without getting red in the face or out of breath.

The child was wearing coarse cloth and looked dark and strong. One could tell at a glance that he was a kid from a farm family, but he was the kind of kid who was well raised by his parents and had never gone hungry.

The kid looked around and found that there were very few people on the mountain. He only saw an old man with a white beard, an older brother and a younger sister looking at him.

The child was brave enough to ask,

"Are you gods?"

The girl smiled and waved at the boy, "Come here."

The child approached, looked at the three people, and finally knelt down in front of the old master.
"Meet the Immortal Master!"

The three of them laughed.

The child didn't know what was happening.

The old master helped the child up and touched his round head.
"My dear, you have worshipped the wrong person!"

Then the old master looked at the young man and the girl, and his meaning was very clear:

Didn’t you two say that magic formation is very difficult?

The child was puzzled.

The girl then asked, "When you walked through this white fog, did you feel anything special?"

The child thought for a moment, then touched his clothes and said,
"The fog in the mountains is wet, and the fog here is dry."

"anything else?"

The child thought it was a test from the gods, and tried hard to think about it, but he really couldn't figure it out, so he shook his head.

The girl and the young man were surprised.

The master really found a treasure.

Afterwards, several people continued to wait, and the girl began to ask questions about the boy's situation. She was very curious about how the child did it.

The few of them waited from sunrise to noon, and finally a little girl came up.

This girl looked older than a little girl, and was obviously different from the boy named Lin Fengnian. She was dressed in rich clothes, with beautiful jade beads hanging all over her body, and her face was as white as a piece of jade.

"Come here, sister!"

The girl waved to the little girl.

The girl and the young man watched as she passed through numerous illusion tests. She has a pure spiritual aura and a photographic memory. She is also good at painting and music. She is truly amazing.

"What's your sister's name?"

The girl couldn't guess whether the girl had passed the test as well or was a fairy from the mountain, so she answered politely.
"My name is Zhu Shuyu."

From then on, until sunset, no child walked out of the white fog.

(End of this chapter)