Lingyuan Immortal

Chapter 876: The True Self

Life is like a mustard seed, and the light of Mount Sumeru is flowing.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, they finally reached the top of the jade steps.

Taoist Changsheng nodded in greeting, and then took a step forward. His figure suddenly became like ripples on a lake, and disappeared along with the ripples between heaven and earth.

Chen Mu did not hesitate and strode in as well.

The scene before my eyes flickered, and I was already in a paradise with clouds all around.

Feeling the solidity under his feet, he nodded secretly, then looked up and saw the green jade platform hanging high above, and the white-haired Taoist was looking at him with a smile.

"Brother Lingyuan."

Taoist Changsheng whispered a reminder.

Chen Mu immediately woke up, his heart slightly moved, and he bowed respectfully and said, "Junior Chen Mu, I pay my respects to Immortal Lord Yunlan."

Yun Lanzi looked down for a long time, his eyes flickering, and the twelve jade hairpins in his hair seemed to be chiming in response.

"Good talent, good fate!"

He suddenly spoke, but didn't want to say more. After a pause, he said in a clear voice, "Now that you have entered my sect, please put aside your past ties for the time being. I hope you will cultivate well and enter the realm of seeking the Tao as soon as possible."

After saying that, he waved his whisk lightly, and clouds and mists filled the sky like a painting, covering Chen Mu and the other three and sending them out of Yunlan Cave Heaven.

"Changsheng, take Lingyuan and go find Fuyuan."

Chen Mu was still a little surprised until the four of them stepped onto the Qingyu Steps again.

"Is this the end?"

Bring him to see the Immortal Lord, just to take a look at him?
You said you wouldn't ask about my origins, but you really didn't ask?
Seeing his surprised expression, Changsheng and the other two sensed something, laughed heartily, and took the initiative to explain: "The Immortal Lord has already made his decision, and naturally will not do such a meaningless thing again."

"Brother Lingyuan, let's go. I'll take you to find Immortal Lord Fuyuan."

Chen Mu nodded slowly, and the light reappeared. He asked, "I wonder what this Immortal Lord Fu Yuan has to say?"

"Immortal Lord Fuyuan..."

Taoist Changsheng exclaimed in admiration: "Immortal Lord Fuyuan is the most outstanding of the three immortals in Chaosheng Pavilion, and is also the number one immortal in Fuyun East Capital. He has experienced the four levels of three disasters and nine calamities, and has been practicing Taoism for over 20,000 years, even longer than Immortal Lord Yunlan..."

"Loose immortal?"

Chen Mu's heart moved slightly. It was the first time he heard such a name.

Taoist Changsheng hadn't noticed, and continued with a half-sigh and half-melancholy tone, "They say that manifesting the Dao Fruit will give you the potential to become a True Immortal, but how can you achieve that so easily?"

"Even if one reaches the peak of the Dao Realm after going through hardships, one still has to face the inevitable catastrophe of ascension. If one successfully overcomes this, everyone will naturally be happy and achieve the status of a True Immortal."

"But if you fail, at best your path will cease and you'll become a wandering immortal. At worst, you'll die and your path will be gone. Such a person will no longer exist in the world..."

He shook his head and sighed, but because he was worried, he still had some words to say.

That is, even if one is lucky enough to escape and become a wandering immortal, because one has not yet completed the tribulation, one still needs to endure the "three disasters and nine tribulations" every once in a while, and the power of the tribulation will increase with the increase of survival time.

In the end, most of the immortals will die because they cannot survive the disaster.

As for independent cultivators like Fu Yuanzi, who have been able to survive four levels of tribulation and last for over 20,000 years, they are naturally rare and cannot be judged by common sense...

Chen Mu nodded slowly. It turned out that even if he failed to overcome the tribulation, he still had a chance of survival...

"Then what did Immortal Yunlan say about taking me there?"

Taoist Changsheng nodded and said, "Immortal Lord Yunlan wants you to become a disciple of Immortal Lord Fuyuan."

"Brother Lingyuan, you have become a disciple of the Immortal King as soon as you entered the sect. When we meet again in the future, I am afraid we will have to call you Grandmaster Uncle." Liu Tianchi said with a smile.

Immortal Lord Fuyuan is now the oldest in the mountain sect, and his seniority is the same as that of Patriarch Yunlan. If Chen Mu becomes his disciple, wouldn't he have to call him Grandmaster Uncle?

Li Bing was extremely envious. Having wasted half his life in his teacher's school, he understood very well the importance of having a good teacher.

Let's take a look at Immortal Lord Fu Yuan. Although he hasn't achieved the status of a True Immortal, his strength is not inferior at all, and his disciples are full of talented people. Just a little help from him would be enough for Chen Mu to benefit endlessly...

The four of them rode on the clouds, passing through countless palaces, and finally, after passing through a curtain of clouds and fog, they successfully entered the Fuyuan Cave Heaven using the Longevity Token as a pass.

Compared with Yunlan Cave Heaven, this place is more simple and real.

In the distance are the peaks of Misty Mountains, and under your feet are long stone steps that stretch out into the distance beyond your sight.

Chen Mu felt something and looked sideways. He found that except for the Taoist Changsheng who seemed calm, Li and Liu were both very curious and looked into the distance frequently.

"There are four immortal caves within the gate, but this one is the most mysterious. Rumor has it that this cave has its own spirit and can be a realm."

Taoist Changsheng explained in a low voice and motioned Chen Mu to sense it carefully.

Chen Mu concentrated his mind and looked over, only to feel the damp morning mist, the chirping of insects around his ears, the thumping of distant mountains, and the echoing of sounds of metal and wood.

He nodded slightly and was about to follow the sound to take a closer look, but he saw a golden light suddenly appear in the depths of Cuiwei, like a dragon breaking through the clouds, and creating a gap.

Suddenly, in the morning mist, I heard the rustling of firewood branches. A figure emerged from a gap along the mossy path. It was a burly woodcutter, singing as he walked.

"With a mountain moon on his shoulders, he steps into the clouds, and after half a lifetime of dust, he reaches the mysteries..."

When he got closer, he saw that the woodcutter was wearing a short brown coat made of hemp cloth. The collar was worn to a shine and dark cloud-shaped patterns could be seen on it. He had a faded black belt tied around his waist, and a half-worn wine gourd was hanging from it. The mouth of the gourd still contained last night's truffles.

The straw sandals on his feet were covered with mountain mud, but a closer look revealed that they were made of thousand-year-old rattan skin. With every step he took, half a mud lotus bloomed on the stone steps.

"Changsheng, Li Bing, and Liu Tianchi greet Taoist Qingshan."

The three immortals bowed their heads in respect.

"Master Dao?"

Chen Mu looked at him intently. The man's face was like quenched bronze, with three deep lines on his forehead that looked like talismans carved with the Juque sword. His gray hair was casually tied up with half a piece of lightning-struck bamboo. He didn't look like a Taoist priest at all.

But it was just like that, and that natural feeling made Chen Mu not doubt it at all.

"My name is Chen Mu, nice to meet Daoist Master Qingshan..."

The woodcutter first glanced at Changsheng and the other two, then nodded and said, "Thank you for seeing me off."

The three Changshengs quickly bowed and said, "No, no, since Daoist Master Qingshan has arrived, we will withdraw now."

After saying this, the three of them bowed and took their leave, not forgetting to send a reminder to Chen Mu through voice transmission: "I forgot to introduce you, Taoist Brother, I am Taoist Qingshan, the third disciple of Immortal Fuyuan..."

Chen Mu's heart moved, but Jianli's body did not move.

After the three of them left, Daoist Master Qingshan pursed his lips and smiled, saying, "Little Junior Brother, there's no need to be so polite. Senior Uncle Yunlan has already informed us. We will take you to see Master now."

Chen Mu bowed again and said, "Thank you, Senior Brother."

Hearing this, Taoist Qingshan nodded, seeming to be quite satisfied with Chen Mu.

The two walked along the stone steps and climbed up the mountain.

The strong wind at the top of the peak is like a blade, cutting the sea of ​​clouds and making them surge and boil.

Chen Musu's white robe rustled, but Daoist Master Qingshan ignored it. He pointed ahead and said, "Master is in here. Junior brother, go ahead on your own."

Chen Mu looked up and found a small bamboo courtyard half-hidden in the clouds in front of him.

He didn't ask any more questions. After bowing his head and paying his respects, he strode forward.

However, the courtyard seemed close but was actually far away. He walked for an unknown amount of time before he arrived in front of the courtyard.

Peach charms that seemed to be from a thousand years ago were hung on the two mottled wooden doors. On the left was written "Keep Quiet" and on the right was engraved "Hold One". The cinnabar had faded to grayish white, but it implicitly reflected the idea of ​​"although it is called enlightenment, in reality there is nothing to gain".

Chen Mu watched quietly for a while, and just as he was about to reach out and knock on the door, he saw green smoke rising from the courtyard, which turned into a three-meter-high copper incense burner.

The ears of this incense burner are carved with a dragon holding a pearl, and the body of the burner is decorated with a yin-yang fish that spins counter-rotatingly, twisting the surrounding light into a chaotic vortex. "The truth is in the bricks, why bother visiting?"

A powerful sound came from the furnace mouth, like a spring thunder, which frightened Chen Mu on the spot.

However, Chen Mu was mentally strong and would not stay there for long. He woke up in an instant.

If he didn't understand what the other party intended before, he now knows it very clearly.

Isn't this clearly a test for him?
But he was not worried, but relieved.

He wasn't afraid of tests, but he was afraid that the other party would do nothing and accept him as a disciple without thinking...

Chen Mu calmed down and began to think about what he meant.

"The Tao is in the tiles," actually means that the Tao is everywhere..."

He looked up and saw stars flowing in the furnace, and faintly there were volumes of golden and jade scriptures flickering in the direction of Ziweiyuan.

His eyes lit up, and he suddenly raised his hand and wiped his fingers across his brow. The Nascent Soul jumped out from his forehead, holding the three-legged, two-eared tripod in his hand and went straight into the furnace.

In an instant, three thousand tongues of fire wrapped around the Nascent Soul's body. At first, they were as hot as fire, and then turned as cold as the underworld. As the five elements of true fire rotated, the changes of the whole body were hidden.

Chen Mu's Yuanying sat upright in the furnace, forming the Kan seal with his hands, allowing the Taoist fire to penetrate the seven orifices.

But he did not feel any pain. Instead, his Nascent Soul produced a lot of dark smoke, which drifted away. His body became more solid and he had a faint feeling of being a spirit.

Seeing this change, Chen Mu allowed the Dao Fire to rage even more until it had no further progress and was no longer effective. Then he summoned the three-legged, two-eared tripod, and streams of innate water energy flowed out, extinguishing the Dao Fire in the furnace in one fell swoop.

"boom!"

The next moment, the incense burner exploded, and the fragments wrapped in starlight condensed into eighty-one bamboo slips.

Chen Mu's expression remained unchanged. He reached out to catch a piece and saw nine characters engraved on it in the form of insects and birds: "Big means passing away, passing away means far away, and far away means returning."

"Is this a test of your understanding of the Great Dao?"

Chen Mu's heart was slightly moved. Just when he felt that this level was too simple, he discovered that every bamboo slip here had scriptures engraved on both sides, and the words were reversed, just like looking at flowers in the fog.

He nodded. Sure enough, it wouldn't be that easy...

He took them one by one and carefully deduced them. Whenever he gained some insights, he would place the bamboo slips in their proper places.

I don’t know how long it took, but when the last piece of bamboo slip in my hand disappeared, the seal characters on the slip suddenly turned into flowing water and moved, and actually drew the image of the River Map and Luoshu in the void.

Chen Mu nodded in praise. After this reverse deduction of the great principles, he gained a lot.

However, this was not the time to digest it. The moment the bamboo slips returned to their place, the nine stars of the Big Dipper shone green light through the gaps between the slips. Where the handle of the ladle pointed, two strange trees appeared in the courtyard.

The dead tree on the east side is twisted like a dragon's claws, and the amber resin oozing from the cracks in the bark falls to the ground, creating the image of "golden sand entering the five internal organs".

The flowers of the Rong tree on the west side bloom like blood. Each petal turns to ashes when it blooms to the extreme, and new buds bloom from the ashes, just like what is written in the ancient scriptures: "Life and death are simultaneous, death and life are simultaneous."

"besides?"

Chen Mu frowned slightly and looked at the two strange trees carefully.

At this time, the previous vigorous sound was wandering among the shadows of the trees again, sometimes east, sometimes west, as if it existed and sometimes disappeared.

"Withering and flourishing share the same root, so why differentiate between life and death?"

Chen Mu suddenly laughed out loud, and the great principles and truths he had just comprehended were instantly digested in the vigorous sound.

"Life is life, death is death..."

He closed his eyes and sat down, and his Nascent Soul transformed into Yin and Yang Qi.

When the green air nourished the dead tree, the blood flowers of the west tree suddenly withered, and the remaining red flowers on the ground condensed into a small red sword that attacked the Nascent Soul.

When the white mist blew over the flourishing trees, the new buds of the eastern trees withered as soon as they appeared, and the dead branches clawed towards the sky like bony claws.

This went on for nine times, and Chen Mu added, "If we forcibly balance the withering and flourishing..."

Before he finished speaking, he released his protective spiritual energy, and two tree branches pierced through his body at the same time.

Withered branches regenerate flesh, flourishing trees decay, and what flows from the wounds is not blood, but a low murmur: "Life and death are also reincarnation."

"Whoo~"

A sudden gust of wind blew the strange trees in the yard.

When the new buds of the dead trees touched the fallen flowers of the flourishing trees, the red flowers in the sky suddenly condensed into thirty-six red-crowned cranes. The cranes' cries were melodious, carrying Chen Mu and passing through the three obstacles, flying straight into the bamboo house.

In the inner room, Fu Yuan Sanxian, with gray clothes and gray hair, was teasing the Samadhi fire in the Bagua furnace with pine needles.

As the air was filled with fire, the red-crowned cranes that had just flown in suddenly scattered all over the room, turning the room into a sea of ​​red.

Chen Mu's feet suddenly felt empty, but he did not show any signs of falling. Instead, he landed slowly and steadily.

He bowed his head and said in a serious tone, "I am Chen Mu, and I pay my respects to the Immortal Lord Fu Yuan."

Fu Yuan Sanxian nodded slightly and said, "Do you know what the test was just now?"

He dropped the pine needles and turned to face him.

The wrist exposed by the cuffs was covered with wrinkles like tree roots, making it look more like an ancient tree that had lived for more than 20,000 years than a human body.

"The incense burner tests the purity of one's heart, the bamboo slips examine the integrity of the sutras, and the final test of the twin trees..."

Chen Mu bowed his head in answer, but accidentally noticed that his reflection in the teacup on the desk was vague.

His pupils suddenly shrank: "No!"

Fu Yuan Sanxian asked with a smile, "What's wrong?"

"The incense burner is empty, the bamboo slips are empty, and the twin trees are empty too!"

"The real test..."

Chen Mu suddenly raised his head, his eyes like stars fixed on the old man: "When did I realize that the Immortal Lord never showed up!"

"Hahahahaha!"

The old man in gray threw his head back and laughed, and everything around him gradually faded away with his laughter.

Chen Mu was stunned for a moment. When he came to his senses, he looked around in horror and found that the bamboo-fenced courtyard had disappeared like smoke.

And he himself was still on the stone steps where he first knocked on the door.

The morning mist still felt damp; it turned out that I had only been in the formation for a moment...

Suddenly, a loud laugh came from the sea of ​​clouds, the sound like the sound of pine waves passing by.

“Many can break through the realm of delusion, but few can understand that they are in the realm of delusion and calmly practice the Tao.”

"Tomorrow at noon, bring your true self and come back to see me."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Mu felt a burning sensation of relief in his Nascent Soul, which became more and more condensed like a god. At the same time, the innate energy surged and filled up the Dao Fetus in a moment.

Feeling the same opportunity and fortune as the one he had just gained in the illusion, Chen Mu was stunned for a moment, and he really couldn't distinguish between truth and illusion...

The breeze is gentle and the clouds are lingering.

Chen Mu regained his composure and looked towards his palm. Unbeknownst to him, a rectangular token had appeared. It had a pattern of azure tides and the words "Spirit Source" on it...

……

(End of this chapter)