From a Zhengyi Taoist Child to a Master of All Laws

Chapter 137 Weird Stone Lotus [Please subscribe! ]

The mountain on Tiantai is vast and desolate. Li Yang and Chi Yanhong walked into the forest and saw an ancient and dilapidated small Taoist temple nestling alone in the green pine forest.

The paint on the outer wall of the Taoist temple has peeled off, revealing mottled blue bricks. The mountain is foggy and moss is spread all over it.

The rotten wooden door was tightly closed. Chi Yanhong opened the rusty copper lock and pushed the door open. He was greeted by bursts of moldy wood fragrance and a ray of setting sun shining through the hole in the roof.

The stone incense burner in the temple has been weathered beyond recognition, and the patterns on it are unrecognizable. The several clay statues of gods, some standing and some sitting, have long lost their former solemnity.

Li Yang followed Chi Yanhong to clean up the small Taoist temple first, and then Chi Yanhong went out with tea and some offerings, saying that her master didn't like to be disturbed, so Li Yang stayed in the Taoist temple and waited.

Faced with the fact that this was most likely the last relic of his Yin-Yang Qi-Eating Root Method, Li Yang became more curious. After cleaning the front yard, he slowly strolled to the space at the back.

Behind it is a very traditional Taoist symmetrical building. The space is not big and the plaque in the middle of the building has been weathered and the font is not clearly visible.

Li Yang walked to the front of the building. This small hall was located in the symmetrical center of the backyard. The eaves of the entire backyard were also designed to be high and gathered on both sides, flowing out from the small hall.

"squeak"

He pulled open the copper lock, and the door made a harsh sound because no one had opened it for a long time.

A breeze rushed into the small hall, bringing up a cloud of dust. The dust danced lightly in the air. The sunlight shone through the window lattice, making the shadows long and thin.

This seemed to be a storage room. Everything Li Yang saw was covered with dust. The stale and decayed smell in the air was a bit pungent. Covering his nose and waving his hands, Li Yang carefully looked at the facilities in the small hall.

On the outermost side are some instruments commonly used by Taoists, including yellow jade hairpins, Sanqing bells, as well as tablets, tokens, banners, and many other items, not of modern style.

Although old, they were all ordinary items. Li Yang searched for a while as if exploring a mystery, and then walked into the depths of the small hall.

There is no statue of a deity placed in the center of the small hall, but instead an ink painting on silk, which shows an old Taoist wearing a deer fetus skin on his head and a crane cloak on his body.

Li Yang was quite surprised. All the objects in the hall were covered with dust, but this painting was the only one without any dust at all. Even the texture on the painting beams was very clear.

The Taoist in the painting seems to be refining elixir, but the elixir furnace has fallen over, and golden lotuses are pouring out. The old Taoist has a depressed look on his face, and his hair and beard have been burnt black.

The painting was not signed, and Li Yang could not tell which dynasty it was from. He gently stroked the painting with his fingers. The texture of the silk was very delicate, but there was none of the supernatural atmosphere that Li Yang had expected.

Li Yangyang looked at the old Taoist priest. For some reason, the more he looked at the Taoist priest's facial features, the more familiar he felt.

However, ever since the revival of spiritual energy, he had basically been in contact with Taoists. He had seen too many of them, and after thinking for a long time, he still had no result.

Just as he was about to leave the room, he suddenly stepped on a hard object. Li Yang bent down to pick it up, and it turned out to be a small black stone with an ancient shape.

Li Yang couldn't tell whether it was a small stone or not, because in addition to the black color, there were also golden patterns on it. It looked restrained and did not look like an ordinary object.

After putting the stone into his pocket and strolling for a long time, Li Yang finally left the room.

According to Chi Yanhong, the lineage of this small temple has a long history and does not belong to the Quanzhen School. It is an ancient Qi-eating lineage that has existed since the pre-Qin period.

This is indeed the case. As Li Yang looked along the way, most of the buildings were ancient.

Chi Yanhong did not return to the temple until late in the evening. His eyes were red and swollen, and it was obvious that he had cried in front of his master's grave.

Li Yang didn't know how to comfort him, so he thought about it and could only hand him a tissue. At this moment, Chi Yanhong saw the black stone that Li Yang was playing with, and his face changed:
"what is this?"

"I don't know. I found it in this small temple. I found that this was the only thing in this temple that I couldn't quite understand."

Chi Yanhong gently wiped away the remaining tears from the corners of his eyes, took the black stone and looked at it carefully.
After a moment, she looked up in surprise and asked, "Have you been to the Ziqing Palace in the back?"

"You mean the one with the picture?"

Chi Yanhong carefully looked at the stone in his hand for a long time, his expression complicated:
"Do you remember what I once told you? I once placed a petrified ancient lotus seed in my master's former residence. But when I went to pay my respects to my master in May, the lotus seed underwent a change. Without any water or soil, it grew three lotus flowers while suspended in mid-air."

Li Yang nodded: "I know, you said you sat under the lotus for three days, and when you woke up three days later, the lotus had withered, then you quit your job and began to travel around the famous mountains of Shuchuan to look for the root method."

Chi Yanhong said in a tone of disbelief: "The one we have in our hands now is the petrified ancient lotus seed."

"?"

Chi Yanhong continued to ask: "When the lotus withered, there were no seeds left. Where did you get this one?"

"Besides, look at the gold marks here."

Chi Yanhong handed the seed to Li Yang: "I remember this golden mark very clearly. It is exactly the same as the ancient lotus seed before it sprouted."

"You mean, this stone is the one that has already formed a lotus?" Li Yang looked a little strange: "But it has already formed a lotus and nothing is left. How can it appear again?"

"Let's go to Ziqing Palace!"

Chi Yanhong brought Li Yang to the Ziqing Palace again, and Li Yang also realized the importance of this ancient lotus seed.

According to Master Chi Yanhong, this ancient lotus seed could herald the revival of spiritual energy, and it bloomed on time in May last year.
And that was also Li Yang’s first day in this world.

The sunset casts mottled shadows of leaves on the Taoist temple, forming a sharp contrast with the lush green mountains around it, and the green shadows of the mountains are projected on the ground.

The two of them pushed the door open again.

Li Yang brought Chi Yanhong to the bottom of the portrait, which was also where he discovered the lotus seeds.

Chi Yanhong murmured to himself: "Yes, I was sitting here quietly watching the ancient lotus sprout. If there were lotus seeds falling, how could I not have noticed it?!"

Li Yang pondered for a moment and asked about the paintings on the wall.

Chi Yanhong took a look at the portrait and narrated, "This is an incident that happened to our sect's founder, Bai Yuchan."

"According to legend, Bai Yuchan once spent three years hard work on refining the elixir, but he was not careful in warming and maintaining it, causing the mercury to escape and the lead to fly away, and the elixir failed.

The failure of alchemy was a great mental blow to Master Bai Yuchan, but he did not lose heart. Instead, he continued to sum up his experience and lessons.

In the second year of Emperor Ningzong's Qingyuan reign, Zhang Ziyang learned that the master had failed in refining the elixir, so he ordered Tong Zi to send the 400-word formula of the golden elixir to Bai Yuchan, and taught him to be cautious. Then the master realized the principle of the jade bath. He then bought medicinal materials and refined it again, doing his best to prevent danger. In the third year of Qingyuan reign, the elixir was successfully refined. "

(End of this chapter)