Tao and Heaven

Chapter 220: Year after year, the frog in the well
Thirty years of Daxia was followed by another five years of Spring and Autumn.

As if it weren't raining, the heirloom curled up in Gu Wen's arms. Watching the water dripping down in front of it, it looked up at Gu Wen and called out a few times.

"It's okay, it's just a little rain, the house won't collapse."

Gu Wen had already gotten used to it. After all creatures had become mortals, this house had been around forty years. Even houses made of reinforced concrete needed maintenance, not to mention a wooden house.

If Xiao Yunyi had done a major renovation before, it would have collapsed long ago.

The only reason he stayed here now was because Gu Wen had no place he wanted to go, and this was where his old friends had lived.

Suddenly, the door opened and a person in white clothes came into the room covered in rain.

Yu Hua looked at the drizzle in the house and said helplessly, "Let's go into the cave."

In the cave, white clouds are vague and the spiritual fields are overgrown with weeds.

Yu Hua took out a specially made Qiankun bag and poured out all the contents, including letters, pills, food, dried fruits from various places, and some small toys.

Gu Wen opened the letters and the first one was from Jiang Fugui.

After Jiang Fugui left, he used Gu Wen's name to join the outer sect of Yuqing Sect, and now he has reached the late stage of Qi training. He also became a teaching disciple and is now guiding new disciples who have just joined.

In addition to the thoughts and condolences about themselves, most of the content of the letters is about trivial matters within the sect.

[Master, being a god is not as good as I imagined. It is worse than being an emperor. When will you come out? I can continue to follow you.]

Yu Hua also sat aside and watched, saying: "He does not have the qualifications to practice. He has to take a lot of elixirs to cleanse his bones and marrow before he can practice Qi. The limit of practicing Jindan step by step is just to follow the rules."

"Five hundred years of golden elixir is enough. This old guy is very ambitious, so he feels tired."

Gu Wen ruthlessly exposed Jiang Fugui, and then opened the next letter, which was sent by Chi Yuzi, and it contained just a few short words.

[I listened to you and stayed in Yuqing Sect. When will you come out? ]

Yu Hua said: "According to your previous method, Chi Yuzi's five senses have improved a little, and now he can see things."

"Won't she recover her sense of taste first to drink?"

Gu Wen smiled, thinking of how drunkard Akabane looked when he first met him. Their friendship started with a jar of wine.

The third letter was from Xiao Yunyi.

Without any polite words, he asked him for advice on swordsmanship in the letter.

"You are such an unromantic guy. Others are here to offer their condolences, but you are here to ask me for advice on swordsmanship."

Gu Wen cursed but there was no trace of smile on his face. He then started writing on cloud pattern paper, using writing to represent his thoughts and words to represent swords, to answer Xiao Yunyi's questions.

The fourth letter was from Lu Chan, and it was also the last one. The content was a very standard and delicate message of condolence, but it was restrained and a little strange.

Gu Wen commented: "This girl is so sure that I am going to die. She speaks very carefully and never mentions how she is doing or what the world outside is like."

Lu Chan may look like the youngest, a girl of about fourteen or fifteen years old, but she actually has the highest emotional intelligence, which also makes her seem particularly unfamiliar.

"Is there anyone else?"

Yu Hua replied: "He Huan and Lan Yongning should have gone into seclusion. They may not know that ten years have passed."

Most of the geniuses have a relatively high level of cultivation before entering the realm of immortality. Some like Chiyuzi have already become True Lords and can go into seclusion for decades at a time.

Seven days passed in a flash.

Gu Wen bid farewell to Yu Hua and said, "Don't come next time."

Yu Hua smiled and said, "You have said this no less than three times, but every time you see me, you can't stop smiling."

"Then I won't laugh next time."

"Don't laugh. I won't bring anything down next time."

After a few jokes, there was no need for Gu Wen to send him to heaven this time. Wukong had already lowered a rainbow bridge, and Yu Hua rode the wind like a fairy in the sky and left the place where immortals lived.

Gu Wen's face, which was originally full of tenderness and smiles, gradually calmed down, as cold as a mountain pine tree, and he returned to the house and sat cross-legged in meditation.

Thirty miles outside the dilapidated house, it was surrounded by a thin mist and it was difficult for ordinary people to get within ten steps.

There are thousands of imperial envoys stationed there all year round. As long as Gu Wen opens his mouth, Daxia will build palaces for him and pay tribute to him with three thousand beauties.

The second emperor of Daxia was already forty years old, not too old but no longer young, and he began to have the desire to seek immortality.
-
In the thirty-third year of the Great Xia Dynasty, a middle-aged man with gray hair and dressed in brocade clothes walked thirty miles alone and arrived at Jiangjia Village.

This place has been abandoned for decades, and the original village has become a ruin.

He followed his memory to the end of the village and shouted to the bamboo courtyard, "Master Wen, your nephew is here to see you."

After a long time, no one responded. Suddenly, a black and white cat jumped out from the yard, looked at him curiously, and said in a clear voice like a child, "Who are you? Why do you look exactly like the immortal?"

The middle-aged man bowed and said, "If the immortal you are talking about is named Gu, then I am his nephew. I hope the immortal beast can tell me something."

"Who is the fairy beast?"

"You, did I say something wrong?"

"What am I?"

"."

Jiang Jucai was silent for a while, then he organized his words and said, "Please help me notify the immortal in the house."

"Why should I help you?"

The cat tilted its head, the red sun shining slightly on its chest fur, and there was pure curiosity in its round eyes.

It has never left Gu Wen within a hundred meters. Jiang Ju is the heirloom and has never seen anyone other than Gu Wen, so it does not have much ill will.

If it were any other creature, the heirloom would first catch it and play with it, then take a few bites if he had an appetite, and if it tasted good, he would take it back to the Immortal.

Inside the cave, there is always a place dedicated to storing the corpses picked up by heirlooms, with all kinds of bones and rotten meat piled together, like a devil's cave.

"Why don't you speak?"

The black and white cat landed on the ground, and its body suddenly grew larger, resembling a tiger, walking towards us with elegant cat steps.

"You're not a bad person, are you?"

Jiang Jucai couldn't help but take a half step back, sweat on his forehead, and was about to run away.

"Cat, what did I tell you?"

A slightly cold voice was heard, and the big tiger suddenly shrank back into a black and white kitten.

At this time, the slightly tattered door slowly opened, and a Taoist priest in coarse green clothes walked out.

"He who is a human being does not eat."

"The cat didn't want to eat it! I just wanted to catch it and bring it back to the immortal to have a look. He looks just like the immortal, so rare!"

"There are people with two legs everywhere out there."

"Really? It's nice outside then."

The cat climbed up Gu Wen's shoulder as quickly as a snake and licked his paw with its pink tongue.

"In the future, Cat will catch many people and put them in the cave."

"You can't arrest anyone either."

"Then how can a cat possess a human treasure?"

“People are not babies.”

Gu Wen felt somewhat helpless; the education of young children gave him a headache.

The innate divine beasts have no good or evil, and the heirloom is in its infancy and cannot distinguish right from wrong. The thought just now was not bloodthirsty, but because Gu Wen is a human, so it thinks that humans are the best treasures in the world.

Just like a puppy burying something.

He turned his gaze to Jiang Jucai. The Great Xia Emperor knelt down on his knees, put his head to the ground, and said, "Nephew, I finally see you."

Gu Wen looked at the gray hair on the man's head, which was no longer as good as the white horse and silver armor he wore back then. His original resistance was instantly washed away by the memories of the past.

I feel a little lonely and a little dazed, as if time has just begun to flow.

"I know what you want, but you don't have the qualifications to practice."

Jiang Jucai, who was kneeling on the ground, trembled slightly, then regained his composure and said solemnly: "Since my father's death, you are the only elder left to me. Now that the world has been prosperous for thirty years, I specially come to tell you the good news today."

"Even if I can't live forever, I want to ask you, has the Jiang family ever failed to live up to your expectations?"

The Jiang family did not gain the country by legitimate means. They had Gu Wen's help along the way, and even the final cessation of the war was achieved with Chiyuzi's punches.

For the common people, it was destiny that the Jiang family was favored by the gods, and the Five Spirit Valley made the Jiang family's prestige even higher.

The Great Xia Kingdom did not rely on the scholars or the common people of the world, but on Gu Wen alone.

Gu Wen shook his head. He had no idea at first, but seeing Jiang Jucai being so frank, he had another idea.

"If this world has eighty years of prosperity, I can give you eternal life."

A prosperous era is rare. It is easy to create something from nothing, but it will be difficult to maintain it for decades. If Jiang Jucai can really work diligently to maintain a prosperous era, his perseverance is enough for cultivation.

Jiang Jucai looked up, took it with both hands, and said with excitement in his voice: "Thank you, Master Wen." Then Gu Wen invited him into the yard and chatted with him for half a day. Then Jiang Jucai was sent thirty miles away by a gust of wind.
-
The thirty-fifth year of Daxia.

Gu Wen is fifty years old, and he still has thirty years to go before his fate expires.

Yu Hua came down to earth and brought letters from an old friend.

Jiang Fugui and Xiao Yunyi are in seclusion, Lu Chan is missing, Chi Yuzi is the same as before, and there is news about He Huan.

Then there is some not-so-good news. Since ancient times, conflicts between humans and demons have never stopped, but in the past few thousand years they have been confined to a small area.

And because the Three Pure Ones Taoist sect entered the border area, the conflict between humans and demons suddenly became fierce. The battle line stretched for thousands of miles, and tens of thousands of monks and demons were fighting every moment.

There was a small battle every three days and a big battle every six days, and it was common for great men like True Lords and Demon Kings to fall.

Among them, the Azure Dragon Clan was the leader, Ao Heng was the strongest among all the other clans, and only Sanqing Daozi and Chiyuzi could compete with him. And because the strong men at the level of Heavenly Venerable Demon Saint had not yet made a move, the Tianjiao who came out of the Immortal Land had become the strongest conventional combat force after decades of silence.

The top five geniuses on the list are invincible in their level.

Gu Wen was somewhat surprised that Chiyuzi could actually compete with Ao Heng. This girl never talked about her own situation in her letters, but he did not expect that she had quietly become the backbone of the human race.

"Although Ao Heng has had contact with us privately, he has not committed any murderous acts. However, he has been ruthless in openly challenging us. And because the Three Pure Ones made mistakes in their cultivation, no one can suppress his arrogance for the time being."

Yu Hua sighed and said, "If you were here, the younger generation of the human race wouldn't be so suppressed that they can't hold their heads up."

Gu Wen shook his head and said, "Senior Sister Chanxi and the others just lack time. In a few years, they will definitely be able to turn things around."
-
Forty years of Daxia.

Yu Hua brought letters from old friends, and this time the content of the letters was mostly about the war between humans and demons.

The three bodies of the Three Pure Ones joined forces to defeat Ao Heng, and the human race's momentum soared.

Akabaneko still answered briefly, "When will you come out to drink with me?" Seeing this, Gu Wen knew that the other party had regained his sense of taste.

Jiang Fugui was promoted to manager for his meritorious service in the later period, and his cultivation reached the foundation-building stage.

He Huan met a descendant of a righteous sect, whose daughter was known as the most talented woman in Wenkuizhou. He Huan was somewhat tempted, but because he already had a harem, he could only restrain his pursuit of her and just be a Taoist friend.

Xiao Yunyi also ushered in his own spring. He was pursued by another sword sect's darling girl. Unlike He Huan, he was extremely distressed. In the letter, a sentence "I am older than her grandfather" almost made Gu Wen burst out laughing.

Yu Hua said faintly, "Is it funny? I should be older than your biological mother."

Gu Wen immediately stopped laughing and denounced Xiao Yunyi's hypocritical behavior in his reply.

If you like it, you like it. If you don’t like it, you reject it. What’s the age limit?
The forty-fifth year of Daxia.

Gu Wen is sixty years old, and he still has twenty years to go before his fate expires.

The house became increasingly dilapidated, the yard was overgrown with weeds, and a Taoist priest was squatting at the door, seemingly having been waiting for many days.

The green Taoist robe was tattered, he had a piece of grass in his mouth and a black and white cat in his arms.

Yu Hua descended from the sky and saw the dilapidated house. He said with some complaints, "Didn't I ask you to fix up the house before I left? I don't ask for it to be luxurious, but at least it can be lived in."

"Not afraid of cold or heat, free from worries, this is what a cultivator should be like."

Gu Wen lay on the ground and looked up at Yu Hua, only to find that he couldn't even see his chin clearly.

"Besides, I have a family heirloom cave where it's spring-like all year round. I can just lie down anywhere. I don't care about the place when I meditate. It's not like I've ever lived in a palace."

"Why don't you try to be an emperor? Many great monks cannot become the Heavenly Lord, so they prefer to take the second best and hold the secular power."

Yu Hua saw that Gu Wen was bored because of his laziness, and he became more and more indifferent, even to the point of giving up.

She could understand that she had also set foot in the realm of immortals. This realm was like a vast ocean, with no footholds or obstacles in all directions. Just like the meaning of transcendence, there was absolute freedom.

But it is also easy to lose your goal, especially since Gu Wen is less than a hundred years old and is in a well where everyone he sees is a mortal. He can't find any goal or people to communicate with, he is like a giant standing in a pile of ants.

Thinking of this, Yu Hua could only feel helpless. She didn't even have the qualifications to die with Gu Wen.

"I was the emperor for a few years in the first few years of Daxia. I always have to restrain myself according to the rules, and I don't live a happy life. And out of sight, out of mind. It's impossible to kill all the corrupt officials and evil people. Killing them blindly will only bring disaster to the country and the people."

Gu Wen stood up with a somersault and said with a broad-minded smile: "But I have become an immortal. What kind of immortal am I if I can't kill a bug when I see it? So it's better to turn a blind eye to it."

Perhaps it was because of his great power, but as soon as Gu Wen sat on the throne he knew he was not cut out for it. After going through so much, he no longer needed to compromise.

Yu Hua asked: "What other hobbies do you have?"

Gu Wen glanced up at the sky, and everything was self-explanatory.

"You'll have to wait for many years. Let me shave your beard first. If you don't shave it, you'll be an old immortal when we meet next time."

Yu Hua reached out and touched Gu Wen's stubble, then pulled him to sit down. Her slender fingers glowed with intelligence as she shaved off the beard bit by bit. Gu Wen resisted a little, but after she tapped his forehead, he calmed down.

"I know you think these trivial matters are insignificant, but apart from practicing and cultivating your Qi, you are still a human being. Moreover, not everyone in the outer world is a hardworking cultivator. On the contrary, cultivators are often more utilitarian than ordinary people. If you go out in a sloppy manner, how will others view you, the top of the third list?"

“Why do I need other people’s opinions?”

Gu Wen still didn't care. He could be a beggar, and he could also be the best in the world.

"But what I want to see is you returning like a banished immortal."

Yu Hua wiped off the last of her stubble and tidied up her messy hair. A handsome face came into view. She smiled and said, "As long as you don't cover your face, you will look like a true immortal."

Afterwards, Yu Hua brought letters and news from the cultivation world to Gu Wen as usual.

Bai Dixun, who was once defeated by his subordinates, rose up and entered the stage of distraction earlier than anyone else.

Lan Yongning came out of seclusion and also fought against the opponent at the level of distraction. The two of them stood at the top of the younger generation with their higher levels.

This made Gu Wen understand the horror of the land of immortals. Even someone as strong as Ao Heng could not cross a major realm to defeat Lan Yongning, who was less talented than him.

The battle between humans and demons stretched for thousands of miles, and both sides had their geniuses. The human race had unparalleled geniuses, and the demon race had sacred beasts that had come across the ages.

Gu Wen was overwhelmed with emotion when he heard this, and he only regretted that he couldn't go on stage in person.

"Brother Lan, you must be a great man."
-
Fifty years of Daxia.

This time, Xiao Yunyi, He Huan, Chi Yuzi and others did not send any letters.

Yu Hua said: "The war is urgent, they have all gone into seclusion to break through, it may take a long time before they come out."

In fact, it is not long for a monk, but Gu Wen is probably no more than a hundred years old. For him, the letters every five years are very precious.

Gu Wen shook his head and said, "Nothing, I can't help, and I can't cause them any trouble. What did you bring me this time? No letters, no food?"

"After I recovered, it took me a bit of time to make this for you. If you want something to eat, the only ones you can have are sugar pills."

Yu Hua took out a palm-sized token. On it was a light blue luster with colorful rays of light that spread out to the left and right like a rainbow and turned into wings.

"what is this?"

Gu Wen took it and played with it. He could sense some spiritual energy in it. He probed his mind and saw lines of text floating past his sight.

[Wenkui, Xuanhuang, Huajian, Baili, Qingyu, Sanqing Mountain, Zhejian Mountain]

Hundreds of ground names reappeared, turning into light spots that fell under the feet, and rainbow lights flew out to connect these place names, weaving into a spider web.

Yu Hua replied, "The Feihong Order is a boat ticket that can travel to various places in the cultivation world."

"The cultivation world is vast, and cultivators may not be able to reach their destination even after flying for a hundred years, so flying shuttles appeared, and then there were sects that specialized in long-distance transportation. Different sects are responsible for different routes, and this Feihong Order can be used to ride all human flying boats."

Hearing this, Gu Wen's eyes brightened up. He rubbed the Feihong Order with his thumb and said, "It's not needed now."

Yu Hua said firmly: "It will be useful in the future. It will definitely be useful in the future."

"I look forward to that day."

Gu Wen played with Feihong Ling and looked at every point on the map again and again.

The "Guide to the Cultivation World" was written based on what those former geniuses said, and he could say a word or two about every place. Yu Hua couldn't help but laugh at him for "knowing everything about the world without leaving home."
-
The fifty-fifth year of Daxia.

Gu Wen is seventy years old and still has ten years to go before his fate expires.

The sun was setting slightly, and the heirloom crawled out of his clothes, looking up at Gu Wen.

"Master, the fairy is not coming?"

"almost."

After a spring and autumn, Heirloom asked again, "Master, why hasn't the fairy come yet?"

Gu Wen, who was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, opened his eyes and said with a smile, "Maybe he was delayed by something."

Three years passed like this. The heavy rain blew down the house. The heirloom had been asked about countless times, and Gu Wen had also found many excuses.

Although the cat didn't understand, he felt that what the immortal said must be right.

"Isn't the fairy coming?"

“Maybe I can’t come.”

Gu Wen stopped looking for reasons. He could not think of any other reasons. This was the last possibility.

"Senior Xianjian, can you help me search for it outside the sky?"

Zheng!
A ray of sword light covered the lightning in the sky, and the fairy sword rose into the sky. The dark clouds were immediately pierced, and the thunderclouds for hundreds of miles dissipated.

(End of this chapter)