Daojun, start from Penglai foundation building

"Huff, huff."

Rapid breathing echoed through the dense forest. The thin Zhang Ling could no longer run. At this moment, he felt as if his lungs were about to explode, his legs were weak, his forehead was burning, and his vision was all gray and black. It seemed as if he would collapse at any moment.

"Senior sister, senior sister, I can't run anymore, I can't run anymore!"

Zhang Ling lay sprawled on the ground, like a fish about to die, and no matter how He Mei tried to pull her up, she couldn't get up.

Looking at her junior brother, He Mei wanted to scold him, but she didn't know what to say. After all, Zhang Ling had only been a disciple for a little over a year and had just begun to absorb Qi. He didn't even know if he was considered to be at the first level of Qi cultivation. Yet he had followed her for hundreds of miles over mountains and valleys without eating or drinking. What more could she ask of him?

Thinking of her mad master, her crazed senior brother, her second senior brother whose personality had drastically changed, and all the other senior brothers and sisters, He Mei couldn't help but shed tears: the two of them were the last living people left in Yunxian Temple.
Although the original Yunxian Temple was not the most popular among the mountains, it was still a well-known Taoist temple.

Their master, Abbot Mei Yun, is also a Golden Core cultivator. Their eldest brother Zhang Qiang and second brother Tang Pin are both Purple Mansion cultivators. There is also a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators. He Mei and Zhang Ling joined the temple the latest, and now they are only at the fifth level of Qi Refining and the first level of Qi Refining, respectively.

However, as the youngest junior sister and brother, they were both favored by their master and all the senior brothers and sisters.

According to He Mei's plan, they would have continued to receive instruction from their senior brother within the temple until they reached the ninth level of Qi Refining, then descend the mountain to gain experience, seek opportunities to establish their foundation, and finally return to the temple to establish their foundation, becoming foundation-building cultivators. After that, they would go out and uphold justice, making Yunxian Temple famous far and wide.
But at some point, Master Mei Yun suddenly changed. At first, he would occasionally lose his mind, then his face would twitch frequently, and later his hands and feet became uncoordinated, his words became incoherent, and he would often forget what he had said before.

Finally, the master had no choice but to go into seclusion. However, when he emerged from seclusion, he became insane, constantly muttering about some true method and some great Dao. He then announced that he would impart the true supreme Dao method to all his disciples.

First, the third senior brother was summoned into the master's room and never came out again, then the fourth senior sister, and finally the fifth senior brother.
After three senior brothers and sisters went missing, the eldest and second senior brothers realized that something was wrong with their master. They instructed them to stay away from their master's room and not to listen to his calls. The eldest and second senior brothers then went together to investigate their master's situation.

Finally, the eldest and second eldest brothers also disappeared without a trace. Three days later, the eldest, second, third, fourth, and fifth eldest brothers all came out of their master's room, but the five of them had changed.

He Mei remembered it very clearly. Even though her senior brothers and sisters still had the same faces and bodies, even though they remembered everything about her and everything in the temple, even though their tone and behavior were no different from before, He Mei could still sense that her senior brothers and sisters had changed and were no longer the same as before.

Even though there was nothing wrong with their aura and spirit, and their words and actions were as usual, their senior brothers and sisters were really different. Their seemingly kind eyes were filled with a deathly stillness and numbness that made He Mei's hair stand on end, as if these people in front of her were just puppets with the memories of their senior brothers and sisters, still maintaining their previous habits.

That is the feeling of sentient beings, the instinctive feeling that comes from the very bones and blood of living people.

As for Master Mei Yun, he kept calling other disciples into his room. Each person who came out looked unchanged, yet it seemed as if they had lost something.

The people of Yunxian Temple began to flee, but each one who fled eventually returned looking exactly the same as before. He Mei grew increasingly frightened and hid outside the temple with Zhang Ling, not daring to approach the depths of the temple.

Perhaps their skills are too shallow, and it's never their turn.

Until that day, when Senior Brother Zhang Qiang came to them, he was chatting with them with a smile on his face, but He Mei could see the sadness in Senior Brother's eyes. Senior Brother's hands were trembling, as if he was about to do something, but in the end, Senior Brother did nothing and just turned and left.

Then, their master appeared before them, as kind as ever, and called them over, saying he would pass on immortal techniques to them.

He Mei was terrified. When He Mei sobbed and called for her master, their master, Master Mei Yun, was stunned. For the first time, the face of this usually kind and gentle Golden Core cultivator was twisted and ferocious. He Mei watched helplessly as her master bit off his own tongue and told them to leave quickly in a muffled voice.

Then He Mei led Zhang Ling out of Yunxian Temple. In her last glance, she saw her senior brother, who was about to rush out of the temple gate, crash into the wall. In that glance, He Mei clearly saw that her senior brother was smiling.

Recalling the past, tears welled up in He Mei's eyes: "Yunxian Temple is gone. Master, Eldest Brother, Second Brother... they've all changed. They're not myself anymore."

“Now there are only the two of us left in Yunxian Temple. If we don’t run away, the lineage of Yunxian Temple will be broken, and no one will be able to avenge our master and senior brothers.”

"Junior brother, please don't let Master waste such a great price, okay?"

Zhang Ling fell silent. He was an orphan who was taken into Yunxian Temple by Master Meiyun and became her junior brother. He regarded Master Meiyun as his father. How could he not remember that last day when Master Meiyun forcibly bit off his own tongue, his mouth full of blood, and told them to run? How could he not remember that after Master Meiyun shouted those words, his expression went completely numb and his whole body stiffened like a wooden puppet?
He just didn't want to recall those memories.

They've been running for too long, and their senior brothers and sisters have been trying to catch them and bring them back. Many times they've narrowly escaped, but when will this escape end?
During this time, they did try to seek help from other Taoist temples, but no matter whether the temples were larger or smaller than Yunxian Temple, the people inside were clearly the same as before, and their words and actions had not changed. However, Zhang Ling could sense that the real people in front of him were no longer the same as before, and were no longer living people.

Are there really any living people left in the entire 100,000-mile mountain range?
With a sigh, Zhang Ling was about to say something when she suddenly stared blankly at the tree in front of her. He Mei was about to speak when she suddenly seemed to sense something, as if cold, slippery, invisible tentacles were examining her and weighing her physical body.

As if frozen in place, He Mei took a long time to turn around and look up. The figures standing on the tree were none other than her senior brothers and sisters.

Those familiar senior brothers and sisters, with their usual gentle and kind smiles, stood on the trees, but they looked like spiders perched on the branches, eyeing their prey.

The sixth senior brother spoke up: "Junior sister, junior brother, why haven't you returned to the temple yet? Master is so worried about you."

The seventh senior brother chimed in, "Yes, Master was so anxious that he even bit off half of my hand."

As he spoke, the seventh senior brother raised his left arm. Only then did He Mei and Zhang Ling realize that the front of the seventh senior brother's left arm was empty, and his left hand and forearm were nowhere to be found. The jagged wound looked as if it had been bitten off by something. However, the bone fragments and flesh at the severed arm were pale white. Although the blood vessels were still pulsating, there was no sign of a living person.

"Yes, yes, our eldest brother was angry that we couldn't bring you back, so he gnawed on one of my feet."

The speaker was the eighth senior sister, who loved beauty the most in the temple. He Mei had heard from her fellow disciples that the eighth senior sister's feet were the most beautiful, but now, the eighth senior sister's right foot was missing, and the granulation tissue at the wound was wriggling, making her look as pale as someone drowning.

"And my hands!"

"And my face!"

Unbeknownst to He Mei, she had already embraced Zhang Ling. They looked in horror at their senior brothers and sisters who were once as close as family. One had a broken arm, another was missing a foot, one's cheek looked like it had been bitten, another was missing an eye, yet they all seemed completely oblivious, leaving the pale, almost rotting wounds exposed.

Although the person's vital energy is the same as that of a living person, and the person still looks the same as before, the inside seems to be rotten, giving the living person a feeling of discomfort and nausea.

Looking at those seemingly friendly but actually mocking faces, He Mei felt as if she were seeing an invisible force.

That being manipulated their master from the very beginning, and then gradually brought the entire Yunxian Temple under its control. At the same time, all the Taoist temples in the entire 100,000-mile mountain range were secretly controlled by it, and everyone became a puppet under its control, repeating the same old actions.

And they might be two ants that being inadvertently overlooked. That being could have easily captured them from the beginning, but instead kept sending people to chase them, as if to enjoy their pathetic escape, as if to savor their anger and despair.

Now, these senior brothers and sisters appeared before them, exposing their wounds and the rot within, a naked declaration from the being that everything was under his control, that he was simply toying with them. For a moment, He Mei didn't even want to run anymore, thinking she might as well just be devoured by him; after all, she could still be with her master and senior brothers and sisters. She was exhausted.

But for some reason, her master Mei Yun Zhenren's voice rang in her ears again. It was her master biting off his own tongue and shouting to them with his mouth full of blood: "Run!"

Thinking of her master's hopeful and gratified eyes, He Mei grabbed Zhang Ling and pushed him backward: "Run, run!"

As she spoke, He Mei drew her magic sword. She was only at the fifth level of Qi Refining and not even a Foundation Establishment cultivator. She drew her sword against her senior brothers and sisters, who were far superior to her and had all taught her.

"Senior brothers and sisters, you have guided my cultivation before, now, please test my results!"

As she spoke, He Mei condensed her spiritual energy into sword light on her magic weapon and slashed at the senior brothers and sisters who stood high above her, and at the being hidden behind them.

Zhang Ling turned her head and saw her junior sister stubbornly drawing her sword and aiming it at those invincible beings. She gritted her teeth and ran forward with her head down.

He knew that this might be what the entity behind it all wanted to see, but he couldn't die yet!

He carried on his back the last hope of all 76 people in Yunxian Temple!
Beyond the Three Realms, to the south lies a smaller realm called Nanzhao.

The Southern Realm is just an ordinary little world, with a round sky and a square earth, flowing rivers, scattered lakes, continuous mountains, and towering peaks.

From any perspective, the Southern Illumination Realm is nothing special. Although it also has a cultivation world, there has long been no trace of Nascent Soul Grandmasters in the Southern Illumination Realm, and even Nascent Soul True Persons have not appeared for a long time.

In the entire cultivation world of Nanzhao, the highest level is the Golden Core True Person.

In the Southern Illumination Realm, where there are only Golden Core cultivators and the future is uncertain, the cultivation world actually has abundant resources, enough for Golden Core cultivators to use, and also enough for many Purple Mansion cultivators and Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Therefore, there are few disputes in the cultivation world of Nanzhao. The Golden Elixir True People establish their own Taoist temples in beautiful places, select some suitable disciples, and live a life without disturbing each other. When they do have exchanges, it is usually three or five Golden Elixir True People who know each other and bring their disciples together to discuss the Tao, and incidentally compare whose disciples are the best.

The cultivation world remained calm and undisturbed, and the lives of ordinary people were even more peaceful.

South of Nanzhaojie, there is a mountain range stretching for 100,000 li, known as Yenanshan.

Within the Ye Nan Mountain, numerous Taoist temples were established by Golden Elixir Immortals, as well as many mountain villages where people farmed, fished, and hunted, living a contented life.

The village had no name, and there were only about ten households on either side. Most of them made a living by hunting and farming. Everyone in the village had the same surname, Fang.

Fang Qiao'er is the village chief's daughter. She is pretty and almost all the young men in the village want to marry her, but Fang Qiao'er doesn't have any feelings for these simple-minded men who only know how to farm and do manual labor. She prefers Fang An, the son of Uncle Fang Wu in the west of the village.

Fang An is good-looking, and he can read and write, he can heal the sick and save lives, and he knows a lot about the outside world.

Even Fang Qiao'er's father, the village chief of Fangjia Village, didn't know how a farm boy who had never left the village could suddenly learn to read, write, and heal the sick.

But Uncle Fang said that his son, Fang An, fell off a cliff one day and was rescued by a mountain immortal who gave him a heavenly book, which is why he knows everything.

The villagers had no doubts about this, after all, there were many immortals flying around in Ye Nan Mountain, whose talisman water could cure diseases and save people, and who could summon wind and rain, they were all true immortals.

Fang An was saved by an immortal and even bestowed with a heavenly book, which means that Fang An has a predestined connection with the immortals!

Such a divine encounter! Everyone in the village was incredibly envious, and many young people even secretly resented why they weren't the ones who fell off the cliff and were saved by the immortals.

But Fang Qiao'er didn't think so. She believed that the immortal saved Fang An because Fang An was better looking than the others.

That day, Fang Qiao'er came to Fang An's place again. In the courtyard surrounded by a wooden fence, Fang An was sitting on a wooden stool, flipping through a book. Fang Qiao'er watched quietly. It has to be said that this scene was extremely beautiful.

"Brother Fang, what are you looking at?"

Fang An looked up and saw Fang Qiao'er. He smiled gently and said, "It's Qiao'er. I'm reading a book on alchemy."

Fang Qiao'er asked blankly, "What is the Dan Shu?"

Fang An wasn't annoyed and patiently explained, "The Dan Shu is a book in which immortals teach how to refine elixirs."

Elixir of immortality!

A magic pill that can cure diseases, save lives, and even make people immortal?!
Fang Qiao'er's eyes lit up, and she quickly asked, "Then, Brother Fang An, after you've finished reading the alchemy book, can you also refine elixirs and even become an immortal?"

Fang An nodded: "That's about right. For example, the pill formula I'm learning now teaches how to refine pills using the essence of the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. If it's successfully refined, the Five Essence Pill can indeed grant immortality."

Immortality?!

Fang Qiao'er was a little shy, but also a little expectant: "Then, will I be able to live forever with you, Brother Fang An?"

Faced with this question, Fang An laughed heartily: "Yes! Yes, you can!"

May everyone in the village live forever!

As he spoke, Fang An picked up a black stove covered in rust from the side. Something was vaguely depicted on the stove, but it was covered in rust and dust and could not be seen clearly. Fang Qiao'er could only barely make out that it looked like a human figure.

Fang An stroked the rusty furnace, which looked as if it would break at the slightest touch, with a hint of a smile in his eyes: "I've almost collected all the materials for the Five Essence Pill. I'll be able to refine the pill soon."

The dark furnace swayed slightly, as if something inside was constantly pulsating. (End of Chapter)