I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 294 The Millennium Pact
After tossing the 200,000 incense offerings from the Cat Fairy Hall to Peach Sister as an advance on her wages, Xu Qing stood with his hands behind his back under the peach tree, lost in thought.

Liu Su'e once had a karmic connection with the willow tree godmother on the banks of the Tanggu River. Liu Su'e still carries a willow twig whip left by her godmother as a protective charm.

That horsewhip was formed from the essence of a great demon with five hundred years of cultivation, and it willingly served as a magical artifact for Liu Su'e to use.

Tao Sanmei's eldest sister had a similar experience.

Xu Qing thought of Ge Hongwen, the abbot of Songyun Temple on Henglu Mountain. Although he had never met Ge Hongwen, he had crossed paths with him in many matters.

The cheap 'godfather' of Master Ya Li, the old doctor Yang Chunfu whom he had once performed a ritual to help the deceased, was once a lay disciple of Ge Hongwen.

Tao Sanmei's eldest sister, who died from a lightning strike, had voluntarily gathered all her magical power and cultivation, transforming it into a peach wood magic sword to follow Ge Hongwen.

Xu Qing stood in the backyard of the coffin shop, looking at the large peach tree in front of him.

In the same location, but at a different time, Ge Hongwen, then a young Taoist priest, also stayed here.
Xu Qing suddenly remembered that two hundred years ago, Hu Baosong, who was an alcoholic, dreamed of Tao Sanmei appearing to him in a dream. He then had a profound realization, resolved to quit drinking, and buried his personal wine gourd under a peach tree.
Although the old fox is now buried in the Populus euphratica Mausoleum, his wine gourd might still be under this peach tree.

Xu Qing had not activated his Five Flavors Sense earlier and could not distinguish the taste of the five grains and wine, so he temporarily put the matter of the gourd out of his mind.

Now that his five senses have been awakened, it is the perfect time for future generations to enjoy the cool shade and savor the century-old fine wine!
Thinking of this, Xu Qing immediately took out an iron shovel and began to estimate the location by circling the peach tree.

There was more than just one gourd of wine buried under Tao Sanmei's body.

Master Yizhen's mother, Zichen, once buried a jar of wine at the Five Elders Temple. Master Yizhen thought his mother buried it for Hu Baosong.

It wasn't until she saw Hu Baosong's suicide note that she finally understood.

It turns out that Master Yizhen's mother was from Shaofu. In Shaofu, whenever a daughter was born, the parents would bury a jar of "Daughter's Red Wine" as an essential item for their daughter's wedding.

Yizhen was confused and took the jar of wine to the coffin shop to offer as a sacrifice to Hu Baosong. However, after reading the letter left by Hu Baosong, she realized that the wine was left for her by her mother.

At that time, Xu Qing helped Daoist Yizhen dig a pit under the peach tree and buried the wine jar that contained special significance. He said that when the peach blossoms in the courtyard were in full bloom in the future, Daoist Yizhen would come and take it himself.

Xu Qing may be tempted, but she wouldn't touch Senior Sister Yizhen's 'dowry'. But Hu Baosong's wine gourd was a different story!

Over here, Xu Qing, with his back to Tao Sanmei, began digging a hole in front of the peach tree. Behind him, Tao Sanmei, still dazed, lay sprawled in front of the stone table, emitting silly giggles as if she were drunk.

Even though she was a tree spirit who had lived for nearly a thousand years, she had never seen so much incense offerings. Moreover, according to Headmaster Xu, these 200,000 incense offerings were only equivalent to four or five years' salary for a branch hall master.

She didn't even dare to imagine how many offerings she would accumulate if she worked under Xu Qing for hundreds of years.
With this incense offering, not to mention the lightning disaster, she might even be able to survive the more severe fire and wind disasters!

As Tao Sanmei was chuckling to herself, dreaming of a bright future, she suddenly felt a strange sensation in her body.

She suddenly woke up and turned around. When she saw Xu Qing's shovel handle stuck in the pit, she exclaimed in horror, "What are you doing?"

Xu Qing silently pulled out the shovel and said expressionlessly, "Be careful when you're planting roots next time, don't just plant them randomly! Look, you dug right into a tree root with just a casual dig. Luckily, my shovel is good quality and didn't break, otherwise you'd have to pay me for the shovel!"

Tao Sanmei looked at Xu Qing in disbelief. "You dug up my roots, and now you want me to pay you back?"

This single shovel blow instantly wiped out most of the good mood she had been enjoying thanks to the 200,000 worshippers.

The thought of having to be driven by this shameless human for at least several decades to come made Tao Sanmei feel that the future was bleak.

But when she thought about the lifespan of tree spirits and the short lifespan of humans, she felt at peace again.

As a peach tree spirit, she could gain at least a thousand years of lifespan if she survived the lightning calamity, while humans would only live for three hundred years if they survived the lightning calamity.

Thinking of this, Tao Sanmei's gaze towards Xu Qing softened.

After all, the sect leader had given her a second chance at life, so even if the other party went further out of line, it wouldn't matter; she could tolerate it.

Xu Qing felt a pang of suspicion when he saw Tao Sanmei's loving and tolerant gaze.

Does this peach tree spirit have some kind of peculiar fetish?
To verify his thoughts, he subconsciously picked up the shovel and poked the tree roots in the pit again.

"."

Tao Sanmei walked to the edge of the pit with her hands behind her back, still showing no anger.

She craned her neck to look into the pit and asked, "What are you looking for?"

"liquor."

Tao Sanmei suddenly realized, "Oh, that's what it is. But I have quite a lot of wine here. Which one are you looking for?"

"Quite a lot of wine?" Xu Qing asked doubtfully. "Besides the wine jars that Senior Sister Yizhen and I buried, isn't the only one left Hu Baosong's wine gourd?"

Tao Sanmei blinked and said, "Five hundred years ago, that talented scholar who drank wine and wrote poetry buried two jars of fine wine here, saying that he would take the wine and get drunk when he retired and returned to his hometown."

"Unfortunately, the country was in turmoil and war broke out everywhere, and we never heard from him again."

Tao Sanmei stretched out her fair and rosy palm, raised her index finger and hooked it towards the ground, and immediately two 500-year-old wine jars emerged from the ground.

Five hundred years, is this wine still drinkable?

Xu Qing had doubts.

After digging out two jars of wine, Tao Sanmei continued working: "This is a jar of wine buried by a resident three hundred years ago, along with some gold, silver and valuables."

"This is a wine gourd that Hu Baosong buried more than a hundred years ago."

Over the course of a thousand years, many strange and unusual things have been buried around the peach tree, most of which are probably wine and gold and silver treasures.

Xu Qing clicked his tongue in amazement: "It's really strange. When they came to bury things, no one dug up any relics left by their predecessors?"

“It’s not that we can’t dig it up, but that I’ve manipulated the surrounding land. Wherever old things have been buried, the soil and rocks are as solid as metal, making it difficult for outsiders to dig in. Naturally, they will seek out softer places and avoid old traces.”

A subtle hint of loneliness and sorrow lingered in Tao Sanmei's words.

"Why did you do this?" Xu Qing asked.

Tao Sanmei smiled slightly, looked at the sky outside the courtyard, and said softly, "I hope that old friend will return and dig up the treasures of the past. If I can see familiar faces again, even this thousand years of loneliness can be comforted."

"."

Xu Qing raised an eyebrow. No wonder the peach tree would sometimes droop for a while; it was just its nature.

"If that's the case, why are you giving me these relics today?"

Tao Sanmei withdrew her gaze, her expression somewhat complicated, and said, "Hu Baosong has lived here for nearly two hundred years. He entered the path of cultivation and is the longest-lived person among all of them, but he still could not resist the erosion of time."

"If Hu Baosong was like this, how could anyone else possibly come back to retrieve these relics?"

"They, like these relics, have already returned to dust."

After Tao Sanmei finished speaking, the big peach tree behind her seemed to droop and wilted.

Xu Qing knew without a doubt that the peach tree must have given birth to Yu Yu again. After pondering for a moment, Xu Qing reached into the landscape painting and took out several jars of wine that Master Feng had given him. In front of Tao Sanmei, he buried them in the ground.

"What's going on, Sect Leader?"

Xu Qing patted the soil and laughed, "This wine is buried here. You have to take good care of it for me. I'll come back for it a thousand years from now."

"A thousand years?"

"Can you live for a thousand years?" Peach Sister asked, her face full of disbelief.

“Yes, a thousand years! I have never drunk wine that is a thousand years old. This is a task that I, the sect leader, have given to you, the branch hall master. You must complete it.”

Xu Qing buried the wine for no other purpose than to give Chang Yuyu's peach tree something to remember her by, so that she wouldn't feel empty inside.

Furthermore, he has never tasted wine that is a thousand years old!
The relics left by Hu Baosong and others gave Xu Qing some inspiration.

Zombies have no lifespan and are not afraid of the erosion of time. If he buries a few jars of wine today, and a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand years pass, when he returns, he may still see his former self and taste the flavor of the past.

Xu Qing stood under the peach tree, gazing into the far distance, as if he could see himself a thousand years later, standing under the peach tree, holding a wine cup and looking at him.

"If there truly is a thousand years from now, this wine should be my treat to you."

When Tao Sanmei heard this out of the blue, she thought Xu Qing was talking to her.

"How about a hundred years? I'm afraid the sect leader won't live to see that."

Tao Sanmei cautiously offered her suggestion, genuinely doubting that this person, who seemed just like any other shamanic disciple, could live for a thousand years.

The emotions Xu Qing had just built up vanished completely in an instant.

He glanced at Tao Sanmei with annoyance: "You better take care of yourself. Be careful that one sunny day when lightning strikes you on the head, and I'll have to collect your corpse!"

After taking all the treasures in the courtyard, Xu Qing picked up his wine gourd and left the coffin shop, completely satisfied.

Hu Baosong's wine gourd is a treasure. It is a square and round gourd that can hold more than ten vats of wine. Xu Qing opened the gourd stopper and shook it slightly.

The wine, aged over time, surges like a vast expanse of jade liquid, making a gurgling sound like a clear spring.

One sip and your mouth is filled with a mellow fragrance, which is no less than Xu Qing's fake wine.

The last time Xu Qing, this zombie, praised something so highly was the fruit wine from Monkey Mountain.

"That old fox knew how to enjoy life. He had countless female confidantes and drank extraordinary wines. If he hadn't been so greedy for these things, he might have lived a few more years!"

Xu Qing was filled with emotion, but if Hu Baosong were given a chance to start over, he felt that the other party would still choose the old path.

"Cultivating immortality, cultivating immortality, if you cultivate for hundreds of years without desires or worldly ties, you will still turn into a handful of dust in the end. It is better not to cultivate at all."

"But I'm different. I want to cultivate to become an immortal, and I also want to experience this mortal world."

"Who told me to be a zombie? Even if the old fox wanted to envy me, he couldn't."

"After all, he's already turned to dust."

Xu Qing walked along the bustling street, surrounded by people coming and going, like the wind blowing through the mundane world, flowing through the fingertips of time.
And he is that era.

A zombie knocks on the door of the county magistrate's mansion.

This wasn't Xu Qing's first visit to the county magistrate's residence; he had met most of the people there before.

Just before the Lunar New Year, he personally buried Old Ding, the gatekeeper of the county magistrate's mansion.

Upon entering the county magistrate's residence, Xu Qing heard a commotion coming from inside before even seeing the magistrate himself.

There were women's complaints and reproaches, as well as the barely suppressed laughter of maids and servants.

Why does it sound so lively at the county magistrate's residence today?

The new gatekeeper, Old Chen, was a small old man who was almost in his grave. He said helplessly, "Nothing else, it's just that the two young masters were fooling around and shaved their heads completely bald."

"People say that our bodies and hair are given to us by our parents. These two young masters have really caused a big disaster this time."

"When the master comes back, he'll be furious!"

Bald? Xu Qing looked surprised.

County Magistrate Chen Guangrui had two children: his biological son, Chen Zi'an, and his adopted son, Chen Liu'er.

In Xu Qing's memory, Chen Zi'an was gentle and quiet, and never did anything naughty or out of line. Only Chen Liu'er was a complete brat!
The child ran around wildly all day, sometimes playing in the mud with the little beggar, sometimes befriending the little ghost girl.

Not long ago, when Chen Liuer went to Baosheng Temple to play with Xiao Shiyue, he told Xiao Shiyue about what he had seen and heard about the fisherman selling fish at Caishikou.

At that time, the fisherman had two golden carp of excellent quality in his net. Chen Liuer felt sorry for the two golden carp and said that Heaven had the virtue of cherishing life. He begged the fisherman to give him the fish so that he could release them back into the wild.

The fisherman refused. He had gone to great lengths to catch these two golden carp; how could he just release them like that? He'd have to pay him!

Chen Liuer was only five or six years old at the time, and he didn't have that much money. Helpless, he had to take off the longevity lock hanging around his neck to exchange for the fish.

"This silver lock was given to me by my godmother, and it was blessed by the Goddess of Life Preservation. You must wait for me to bring money to redeem it."

The child, unaware of the wickedness of human nature, swapped the longevity lock for the golden carp and happily ran towards the river.

When they arrived at the riverbank, Chen Liuer carefully placed the two golden carp into the water, saying comforting words to them.

"Be more careful next time, don't be so foolish as to get caught again."

Strangely enough, the two golden carp didn't leave after returning to the water. They just swam back and forth, occasionally poking their heads out of the water as if responding to Chen Liuer.

Chen Liuer didn't take it seriously and was still happily grinning when, in the next moment, the two golden carp suddenly transformed into a boy and a girl.

The two children didn't care whether Chen Liuer was frightened or not. They just floated on the surface of the water, with half of their bodies showing, and thanked Chen Liuer.

They said Chen Liuer was just like the benefactor they had met before—one was a great philanthropist, and the other was a minor one!
Chen Liuer, that brat, was born carefree and fearless. He wasn't afraid at all, and instead asked if he could come to the river to play with them in the future.

The two children looked at each other and said, "We will meet again if we are destined to."

Afterwards, Chen Liuer had a piece of cyan-gold scale in his hand, while the two children turned into two golden lights and disappeared into the water.

At that time, Chen Liuer was sitting on the offering table at Baosheng Temple, eating the offerings while telling Xiao Shiyue about what he had seen and heard.

Behind him, the Goddess of Life Protection was listening silently.

(End of this chapter)