Poor Taoist Qiu Chuji

Chapter 395 Only the Immortal Are Redundant

Boom!

The rain is pouring down!

At the foot of a low hill, a disheveled man crawled out of the mud.

The surrounding area was filled with tall trees, some at least tens of meters high, with lush foliage. When Qiu Chuji 'landed,' they provided sufficient support and cushioning; otherwise... Qiu Chuji would probably have been hit even harder.

Qiu Chuji never expected that he would once again arrive in a world completely 'without magic'.

Not only were all his abilities except physical strength sealed off, but his connection with the Jade Void Bell was also severed. Now he is just an ordinary person with a very strong body who will never age or die.

The Five Elements Wheel was also sealed away, turning into an ordinary ring, unable to manifest any extraordinary power.

With Qiu Chuji's keen spiritual insight, he was able to see that this world was not inert in its primordial energy, nor did it have any particular inclination; rather, it was truly devoid of any trace of existence.

By squeezing the energy out of his body, Qiu Chuji might be able to act without regard to the cost, but he was certain that this completely magic-free world was his new testing ground.

To truly cultivate oneself into a Golden Immortal and withstand the test of time, this seems to be an inevitable path.

After calming his mind and glancing at the rain, Qiu Chuji suddenly recalled a distant memory about the three things one should do first after falling into the wilderness.

Fire, food, and shelter.

Thinking of those scenes from his memory, Qiu Chuji smiled slightly, and then walked boldly into the depths of the rain.

Now is the time for wilderness survival. He needs to first build his temporary shelter and then sort out his memories.

Qiu Chuji had a premonition that this would be an extremely long journey.

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The rotting plants after the rain created a foul stench of sewage and mud that clung to my nostrils, impossible to clear completely.

Qiu Chuji carried a wooden spear swollen from being soaked in the rain, his toes sinking into the mud with a slight sucking sound.

The deep hum of a herbivore in the distance pierced the mist, echoing through the curtain woven from the aerial roots of the banyan tree.

Moss is seeping fluorescent green from between the veins of the giant fern leaves, also concealing its dangerous hairs.

This is already the third year since Qiu Chuji came into this world!
After measuring the area on foot, Qiu Chuji was quite certain that this was an 'uncivilized' and barbaric world.

Many kinds of animals, birds, fish, and plants live here... but no intelligent life.

The ignorance and wilderness here created an extremely vast and complex sense of loneliness, just like an invisible net covering Qiu Chuji.

This kind of loneliness is completely different from the feeling of Qiu Chuji sitting alone in a quiet, secluded room for many years to cultivate himself.

The universe is vast and the world is boundless, but... I am all alone!
No one knows me, because I am all I am!

Unable to cultivate, unable to go into seclusion, unable to comprehend the principles of heaven and earth and thus ignore the passage of time, that sense of loneliness will truly be amplified as time goes by.

Not only that, Qiu Chuji's primordial spirit, which possessed the characteristics of the Great Luo, was also unable to penetrate the gaps in space and time to meet with "others" and transmit messages to them, or to educate them.

Fortunately, Qiu Chuji still had some fun to find!

For example, one could truly see oneself as an ordinary person struggling to survive alone in the wilderness, obtaining food, avoiding danger, building a sturdier, safer, and more secluded shelter, preparing for the next meal, collecting various ingredients, and exploring different ways of cooking in the wild. Through such actions, one could make their life more comfortable.

These simple tasks allowed Qiu Chuji to find enjoyment and also briefly forget his loneliness.

Perhaps... after some time, he could tame some wild animals and keep them as pets.

Of course, he needs to find some relatively intelligent animals to tame; otherwise, without a sense of interaction, it won't be very interesting.

At that moment, ripples suddenly appeared in the puddles formed by rainwater accumulating at the edge of the cliff.

Qiu Chuji, dressed in animal skin, suddenly lowered his body, his shoulder blades pressing against the lichen-covered rock.

The bushes seven steps away were swaying, not by the wind—the wind had long been filtered into fine whistles by the crisscrossing vines.

Staring at the unusually swaying shadow, Qiu Chuji's left hand quietly reached for the short sword at his waist!
This was a 'weapon' he forged himself by hand in a high-temperature furnace, melting iron ore. The moment the short sword took shape, he even reaped a joy and satisfaction comparable to when he obtained the Great Five Elements Wheel.

The pile of decaying leaves suddenly burst open, but what sprang out was not a saber-toothed beast—a tree frog covered in mud. Its swollen vocal sac brushed against Qiu Chuji's fluttering hair and splashed a string of water droplets in the ferns.

Before Qiu Chuji could turn around, the real threat descended from above. The hanging vines trembled and the breath carrying the stench of rotting flesh sprayed onto the back of his neck.

The tip of the wooden spear in his left hand pierced the top of his head, the dull sound of tearing bark fibers mixed with the roar of a wild beast, shaking down thousands of water droplets.

As the fangs brushed against his earlobe, Qiu Chuji turned his head and saw clearly those amber vertical pupils.

This is a saber-toothed beast that looks very much like a leopard, and it is Qiu Chuji's target this time.

Several months ago, Qiu Chuji found a young saber-toothed leopard, but the cub died not long after.

It seems to need to obtain a small amount of toxin from its mother to maintain its growth and health until it reaches adulthood and leaves its mother to live independently.

So... Qiu Chuji set his sights on adult saber-toothed leopards, wanting to start by taming them and gradually acquire a saber-toothed leopard pack.

This fierce animal has a good level of intelligence, at least comparable to that of a dog, and can serve as a conversation partner when bored.

Waaah...!
Mio~!

The saber-toothed leopard made a strange sound and pounced on Qiu Chuji once again.

Qiu Chuji did not rush to subdue it, but instead "fought" with it, as if they were evenly matched.

He forgot his superb martial arts skills, suppressed the boiling power within his body, and fought against the ferocious beast through his eyes, voice, simple body movements, and the rough weapon in his hand.

That's also a kind of fun.

Preserving this enjoyment helps Qiu Chuji always remember who he is.

This 'battle' lasted a long time.

Qiu Chuji only managed to completely subdue the saber-toothed leopard after it had exhausted its strength, then tied it up and carried it back to the sanctuary.

Qiu Chuji's current shelter is the nineteenth he has found since arriving in this world. It is located between two giant trees that are hundreds of meters tall and connected to each other. It is a sizable high-altitude wooden house woven from a large number of wooden sticks and vines, and there is a wide wooden platform around the house.

Qiu Chuji even laid a layer of shale slabs in the cooking area of ​​the platform.

Climbing up the vine ladder to the wooden house, Qiu Chuji locked the leopard in a vine cage located on one side of the platform.

This particular vine is very flexible, and it is impossible for a saber-toothed leopard to gnaw through it. Instead, the vine would become entangled in the teeth and claws by the large amount of woody fibers.

Huff... huff... huff!
Qiu Chuji blew on the simple stone stove, deliberately preserving the embers, which then burned among the dry leaves. He first fed small pieces of wood into the stove, followed by larger, more durable pieces of wood.

After the flames were fully ignited, the saber-toothed leopard in the cage stopped its restlessness and stared blankly at the firelight beside Qiu Chuji.

Qiu Chuji took a piece of smoked meat from the shelf inside the house, cut it into finger-width pieces with his short sword, and grilled it on a hot shale plate, sprinkling it with spices and jam as he did so. After a meal that was not lavish but still quite delicious, Qiu Chuji used a stick to skewer a piece of meat and went to the cage to begin taming the saber-toothed leopard.

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A month later, the saber-toothed leopard was able to hunt alongside Qiu Chuji.

With a combination of intelligence and savagery, they effortlessly obtained more food, and the saber-toothed leopards became increasingly glossy, robust, and powerful.

A few days later, it conquered a small pack of saber-toothed leopards and became the new king of the pack.

The saber-toothed leopard that was initially conquered by Qiu Chuji migrated with its newly acquired entire pack, leaving the territory where Qiu Chuji operated.

Their departure was sudden and ruthless.

Perhaps in the saber-toothed leopard's mind, Qiu Chuji was not a companion with whom it depended for survival and shared joys and sorrows, but merely a leader to whom it had to submit.

Once it has its own tribe and other support, leaving becomes a matter of course.

Qiu Chuji stood on the treetop, watching the saber-toothed leopard pack migrate away, without intervening.

With his firm and strong heart, this would not cause him any unnecessary ripples.

However... the saber-toothed leopard was ultimately not the 'partner' he was looking for.

So in the days that followed, Qiu Chuji tried many other 'partners'.

There are large birds flying in the sky, beasts running on the ground, and even fish in the water or large insects growing from the trees.

Some of these animals will suddenly leave, while others will not.

But they don't leave, not because they have developed feelings for each other, but because in their genes there is an instinct to attach themselves to the strong and obey the leader's orders.

To date, the most intelligent animal Qiu Chuji has ever encountered is the saber-toothed leopard.

So Qiu Chuji changed his approach again. This time, he captured a pregnant female saber-toothed leopard and planned to raise her cubs.

This filled Qiu Chuji with a sense of challenge and interest, and he never felt bored.

After all... he has plenty of time!
So much time passed that he never felt it actually flowing through him.

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Qiu Chuji's plan was very successful; the leopard cub he had raised since childhood never thought of leaving after it grew up.

Even though it also gained its own tribe and became the king of a tribe, it still led the other leopards in the tribe to seek refuge with Qiu Chuji and live together by his side.

She still relied heavily on Qiu Chuji and had extensive emotional exchanges with him.

This made Qiu Chuji feel genuine happiness, something he hadn't experienced in a long time.

That night, he held a bonfire party for one person under a huge banyan tree with more than a dozen leopards of various sizes.

Qiu Chuji let loose, singing and dancing around the campfire, and drinking his own homemade wine, consuming half a year's worth in one night.

From then on, every day seemed to be full of hope and joy.

With Qiu Chuji's help and care, the leopard pack grew stronger. Ten years later, Qiu Chuji discovered that the pack, which originally consisted of only a dozen or so leopards, had expanded to several hundred.

If Qiu Chuji hadn't also taught the leopards to cooperate in herding and raising some large herbivorous animals, there probably wouldn't have been enough food nearby to satisfy so many leopards.

Even with some concept of domestication, the leopard population has expanded to its current maximum.

Many adult leopards are still selected and driven to more distant places to make a living independently.

Qiu Chuji intervened artificially, failing to follow natural selection... that is, the powerful adult leopards were driven out, while the naturally weaker and more delicate leopards were allowed to stay and continue to enjoy life in this paradise.

Not long after, Qiu Chuji personally delivered the baby and raised it little by little until the leopard king, the first creature to form a real bond with him, died!

When it died, the leopard king's children and descendants did not grieve, but rushed forward to devour its carcass.

Qiu Chuji was furious!

More than a decade after he came into this world, this was the first time he had truly wielded a sword.

Even iron swords without any internal force, true qi, primordial qi, elemental or other extraordinary power easily pierced the throats of many leopards, bestowing upon them despair and death.

The leopards scattered and fled, howling incessantly.

They couldn't understand why the 'god' who had always cared for and loved them would suddenly become angry and want to kill them.

Thus, a 'great' leopard kingdom fell apart.

The powerful leopards, having escaped the calamity, led their respective groups to different areas, beginning their migration.

Only a small number of the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled remain in the tribe to 'wait for death'.

Looking at the leopard king's corpse, Qiu Chuji's hardened heart was touched.

This was not the first time he had said goodbye to his life; over the years, he had even said goodbye to some friends with whom he had a fairly good relationship.

But looking at the leopard king's corpse, Qiu Chuji knew that at this moment, the one he needed to say goodbye to was himself.

He is no longer a 'person'!

An immortal life would allow him to witness the passing of one life after another that was close to him.

Whether it's a hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years, or a hundred thousand years, as long as one hasn't reached the same level as him, this farewell will come sooner or later.

As a Quanzhen Taoist, he would not have a wife or children, but he would have fellow disciples, a master and mistress, disciples and grand-disciples. It is impossible for all of these people to have the same luck and aptitude as him to become a Golden Immortal.

Even if one cultivates to become an immortal under his guidance, one day one will face the five signs of decay and reach the end.

The true farewell to the Leopard King was only the first truly different 'farewell' in the long and endless years to come.

When he conquers time, time will also curse him with loneliness!

Qiu Chuji finally used fire to set the leopard king's corpse ablaze.

Watching the leopard king's corpse burn to ashes in the flames, Qiu Chuji bid farewell to his previous decade.

Then, he selected a leopard cub from among the old, weak, sick, and disabled, intending to raise it to become the new king.

This time, however, his goal was not to train a single individual, but the entire leopard population.

He wanted to see if, over a long period of time, he could elevate such a wild species to the level of true civilization.

But if one considers a civilization as one's 'partner,' will he still feel the loneliness of constantly losing it amidst the cold indifference of time?

This is like a game!
But it's also a challenge!
(End of this chapter)